A theory dating back more than 100 years suggested that there is an optimal amount of stress for good performance, based on a study that had nothing to do with humans.
Researchers ran mice through a maze, using electric shocks to punish wrong choices. On harder tasks, moderate shocks produced the fastest learning, while stronger shocks made it worse. Over the years, this got reinterpreted into claims about punishment, reward, motivation and stress in humans.
But the original study was about how animals learn to avoid fear and pain, not about optimal learning at all. Once a mouse learns to avoid a shock, escape itself triggers dopamine release; in other words, the escape – not the discovery – is the reward.
Grades aren’t the only source of pressure that students experience. Social comparison plays a role, too, along with the pressure to only answer questions when they’re already sure, to never seem confused and to stay constantly productive
One of the most rewarding classes I’ve ever taken in college had a teacher that spent a significant amount of class time (maybe 1/4 to 1/3) to breaking us up into small groups to have focused discussions about one aspect of the topic we were learning about. It helped me learn several things very quickly: nobody understands everything, there will always be someone who thought of an angle you haven’t, and explaining what you do understand helps you learn more.
That said, I am ~40ish and there were some freshmen who were clearly petrified to do this. The pressure and fear of looking ‘stupid’ is absolutely real. And it was incredible to have a class where the teacher purposefully and gently helped students work through that.
That said, I’ve also seen the exact opposite where a professor will single out people that ask questions and make snide comments that invite other students to laugh at them. Run, do not walk, away from that if at all feasible.
The kids aren’t okay, and we are going to suffer because of it
What if we just age-gate sadness itself and don’t let them be sad legally?
Like an app that monitors them and reports shifts in moods and administers drugs to improve attitude and alerts the government?
That seems like the logical next step for America. Haha.
Heck, why not expended it to the adults
Prisons are overcrowded as it is; I’m not sure they could handle ~18% of the entire population of the country.
I’m not sure they could handle ~18% of the entire population of the country.
Well certainly not with that attitude…
Well the reason for that is clearly we aren’t punishing people enough!
See this is PRECISELY WHY self defeating cruelty is the only choice we have!
Since boomers, each older generation has found ways to profit off and from the misery of the younger generations.
There is a strong argument that the amount of anxiety fluctuates less than the source and then we get hung up on thinking each new source is additive.
I think this is in part due to scarcity and the declining middle class. Opportunities for people to have a fairly comfortable life are fewer and harder to achieve then they were in the past. As there are less resources the criteria to dole them out gets stricter as a way to determine who gets more of the shrinking allotment.
Education is one of the few levers left people can effect that will improve life. It’s easy to see the effects ripple backwards.
My fifth grader has academic anxiety about grades and how it will affect college and job prospects. To me that’s crazy; at this point it’s about the fundamentals of life. How could you know what job you want at 11? Much less what extracurricular activities will universities look for when you apply to college.
They see their parenrs struggling and see what is possibly in store for them, and their parents may also not believe like previous generations that their kid is destined to be better off than them.
Not surprising if the parents accomplished what the generation before them thought was the key to success of getting educated and choosing the right career path. So they’ve already “succeeded” and hit the ceiling and see it wasn’t all they envisioned it to be and the job opportunities and salaries in relation to cost of living getting worse.
And the kids pick up on that.
Your fifth grader understands that when you say ‘everything will be okay’ that what you are really doing is lying to yourself because you are scared, which I understand but what else is your kid supposed to do except be background anxious about coming expulsions from their way of life that their parents clearly are dangerously ignorant of?
Your child’s response is totally rational
That’s a real stretch to come up with what you wrote from my response. You are leading with what you already thought and wanted to say as opposed to responding.
Can attest to this. Have been in escape mode for nearly a decade. The dopamine thrill is real.
You just noticed?
Many of us have been saying this for decades… And ya all just called us cranks.
Shut up smacks your wrists with ruler and MEMORIZE these facts about Catholicism NOW!!!
You should feel guilty for saying such a thing!
