<p>Today's Washington Post has a front page story about relieving stress for competitive and busy students. The article also discusses parents advising cutting back on work load.</p>
<p>Have you ever advised your student to take fewer/lower level courses out of concern for their work load? How did they respond? And...how late do your kids stay up working...are you concerned about lack of sleep?</p>
<p>This article was interesting. I wonder how effective these techniques will be for students in the long run. I believe Whitman, one of the schools featured in the article, was also featured in the book "The Overachievers". My daughter's school is on block scheduling and so far her workload has been manageable; she is a sophomore with 3 AP classes (Chem, Euro and Psych) and the rest are honors. She pretty much self-selects her courses and did ask to drop an art class for to work as a teacher's assistant (translation: study block) which was fine with me. She is active in forensics, science bowl, academic team and is an officer for two clubs. Generally she is done with course work by 10 PM-- spends extensive weekend time working and preparing for upcoming week. Generally, I'm not real concerned about sleep/stress issues. It seems to be working for her, but her HS is not the same type of environment as Whitman is.</p>
<p>I haven't advised that my kids cut back on their workload in high school, and I'm fairly certain they wouldn't take my advice if I did. I have, however, strongly suggested that they cut back on ECs, instrument practice, and part-time jobs when they've felt the strain of a schedule overload. Sometimes they've listened and sometimes they haven't.</p>
<p>One of my kids definitely sacrificed sleep for top grades; the other two were more laid back (and didn't do quite as well academically, either). My current hs junior gets about 7 hours per night on school nights - with a rigorous curriculum and a nightly EC, this is probably the best she can do. She makes up for it on the weekends! The more driven kid probably managed 6 hours of sleep most nights, but she was not amenable to suggestions of any kind, about curriculum, ECs, sleep, or whether to take an umbrella if it was raining.</p>
<p>I have often suggested that my older kids take a more manageable curriculum in college, where I think a solid GPA is more important than graduating with the most credits or the most 400-level courses. I've had about the same degree of luck in making this suggestion that I found with the others.</p>
<p>Heh. Jr is the least-stressed person I know. His younger brother (who currently lacks a CC nickname) is a little more stressed, but not like he needs help. </p>
<p>Can anyone recommend sources for how to cause overconfident students to feel more stress?</p>
<p>Thank God for block scheduling! I don't know what my kids would do without it...my senior D spends at least 3 hours nightly on top of EC which she has at least 3 nights out of the school week. Plus piano practice regularly on top of that. I will say though that she is extremely disciplined in her study habits so a part of her nightly work is studying in advance for upcoming tests, researching etc. - I'm hoping this discipline pays off for her in college where there is so much temptation to slack off and not have regular study times...</p>
<p>It's funny how the study/homework loads seems to vary from school to school. D attends one of our public high schools - one of the best in the city, but our public schools get kind of a bum rap in our town. We have several private high schools in town too (many Catholic HS) and we have heard over and over from friends and students themselves that they have minimal amounts of work to do at night - what gives? How to schools manage 8 classes in one day w/time for homework to be completed? Study halls are frowned on in my D and S school - they are mostly filled with unmotivated students. D is doing a teacher assistant period - sometimes she has a little time to do homework there, but many times she is doing her "job" - assisting the teacher w/tasks or tutoring pre-calc students in the class on their work...</p>
<p>I think it's a sin though that kids spend so much time studying - always wanted my kids to have more opportunities to do things they liked like dance, music, art etc.</p>
<p>This is one reason our HS district allows a maximum of 3 AP courses during a grading term. And it has not seemed to hurt college admissions in the slightest.</p>
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Thank God for block scheduling!
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<p>Can someone explain to me what block scheduling is? My S's high school is changing to it next year, from some other odd schedule (8 day? 12 day?) that I don't understand either. Thankfully, he does!</p>
<p>Re: block scheduling -- At my daughter's high school she can take a maximum of 8 classes per year. Some classes meet every day for one semester for an hour and a half at a time. Other classes (such as AP, English, music ) meet all year long, every other day. One concern I have is the gaps it can leave in the process-- for instance, one could finish a foreign language course in Jan. 2007 and not start the next course in the sequence until January 2008 or later. I'm sure someone else can explain it much more thoroughly than I ever could!</p>
<p>Block scheduling can work different ways. At our HS students have a total of 8 classes, but only have 4 classes per day. So days alternate. Monday classes 1-4, Tues. 5-8. Weds. 1-4, Thurs. 5-8, Fri 1-4, Mon. 5-8 etc.<br>
The advantage is that they have longer periods per class - 90 minutes - which can be great for math classes example where more instruction is beneficial. Block is great for time management/studying because you don't have 8 classes to necessarily be responsible each night - helps w/studying for tests. Also great for kids if they are having a prob w/homework - gives them a day inbetween classes where they can seek out additional help from teachers/friends etc. </p>
<p>Some block schools do 4 classes on semester, 4 the next. I like ours best for retention of subject matter.</p>
<p>Thanks to you both - the concept is clearer to me now.</p>
<p>My HS D maintains a challenging courseload-and is involved with ECs. I think frankly her ECs are her way of dealing with the stress of her academic load.Sleep--comes on the weekend--sometimes. I try to remind her to "breathe", offer to book a massage or accupuncture session, or just listen when she needs to rant and rave about something. Hopefully she will develop some kind of coping mechanism to deal with stress/college life when she is on her own.As a parent I do worry its all too much--but if she were to cut out something, I think it would bother her even more.So--in reading this posting do you think I am on track, or ?</p>
<p>APOL, I think everyone is different. Your daughter may thrive on having that booked schedule. My daughter has always been someone who has a nice consistent load of activities, but is someone who really loves some "down time" too - she doesn't want every minute booked and quite honestly doesn't want every minute booked up with friends. As for weekends, she's happy to sleep to 9am or so but has never wanted to sleep more than that because she feels like it's a waste of the day. Maybe that's not typical, but that's what works for her. </p>
<p>As long as your D is not using the EC's to avoid the work of her load (and it doesn't sound like it is...) I guess it's ok . It is my opinion though, that everyone - kids and adults need to learn to have unscheduled time too - time to chill...</p>
<p>Listening to the rants and raves works with my daughter as long as I don't also offer advice. But if I offered massage or accupuncture (never would have thought of that) she'd tell me she doesn't have time.</p>
<p>So glad son's HS did not limit AP's- he's one of those gifted kids who needed as much as his school could give him. He was a CC runner and in Orchestra, both great stress relievers (especially since he did not try to be an overachiever in orchestra). He still runs on campus and the Viola is safely in his home closet... Also, senior year in HS he wasted a lot of time on his computer instead of doing the homework, he has always been a late night person so I quit telling him to go to bed. Different people need different amounts of sleep, you learn what works for your child by the time they reach later years of high school and hopefully react accordingly.</p>
<p>Abasket & smdur-thank you for your input. It helps me feel like I am going in the right direction.Being a parent is fun, and a challenge...best to you, and your kids!</p>
<p>Some kids - and adults - thrive on a level of intensity that others would consider to be stressful and out of balance. I think there is no doubt that the very selective colleges are looking for type A students who are very dedicated, active, and passionate. This factor is worth considering when selecting and applying to colleges. In addition to the low acceptance rates, very selective colleges may not be a good choice for the kid who is not a strong type A. Whether this makes good sense from an education point of view is a whole other consideration.</p>
<p>Just curious - for those of you who put limits on your kids (i.e. not allowing them to take an extra class, less ecs) did you find it impacted them when it came to college admissions? Do you think competitve colleges look more favorably on the student that takes an extra class instead of lunch - or does it not make a difference? I think so much of the pressure kids put on themselves comes from the message the colleges are sending.</p>
<p>I let my son go in late sometimes when he had stayed up very late to do work in hs, or when he had gone to be because he was exhausted and got up to finish the work in the morning. He had gym first period and he was a three-season xc, indoor track, outdoor track athlete who played soccer on a league team for most of high school, so letting him sleep him (maybe 4 or 5 times a year) instead of getting to school at 7 am to do gym at 7:20 didn't do him any harm.</p>
<p>Our school has a policy that if an EC extends past 10 PM, the students are able to arrive late at school without penalty. My daughter would be bored stiff without her AP/Honors curriculum! I share edad's view that some kids really do thrive on that level of intensity that would be difficult for others to handle and I think that's a call for the parents to make-- what works best for their child.</p>
<p>Oh, have we struggled with this. Seven hours of sleep is a good night. I think the level of intensity at our school -where my sophomore son is in an honors program with an eight period day- is not healthy for even Type A kids. And it's a bragging point; in a class chat room at one point during the first quarter they were all competing to see who could spend the most time on an assignment on the least sleep. At the semester break a friend and I actually pushed our sons to go to the movies one night after two preceding weeks of exams, final papers, all-nighters, etc. But what to do?? All we hear about is the competition ahead for college slots, and how the next couple of years will see the most applicants. And that's what they're told in school, too.</p>