http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB121158515508718929-2zYzJcIGUBwh...AaEfzbw
High School's Worst Year? For Ambitious Teens, 11th Grade Becomes a
Marathon of Tests,
Stress and Sleepless Nights
By JONATHAN KAUFMAN
May 24, 2008; Page A1
FARMINGTON, Conn. -- Jennifer Glickman, a 17-year-old high school
junior, gets so stressed some days from overwork and lack of sleep
that she feels sick to her stomach and gets painful headaches.
A straight-A student, she recently announced at a college preparatory
meeting with her mother and guidance counselor that she doesn't want
to apply to Princeton and the other Ivy League schools that her
counselor thinks she could get into.
Jennifer Glickman, 17, is a straight-A student, but some days she says
she gets so stressed from overwork that she feels sick to her stomach
and gets painful headaches.
"My mom wants me to look at Ivy League schools, but my high school
years have been so stressful that I don't want to deal with that in
college," says Ms. Glickman. "I don't want it to be such a competitive
atmosphere. I don't want to put myself in this situation again."
High school has long been enshrined in popular culture -- from the
musical "Grease" to television shows like "Beverly Hills 90210" and
"Friday Night Lights" -- as a time of classes, sports and overwrought
adolescent drama. But these days, junior year is the worst year in
high school for many ambitious students aiming for elite and
increasingly selective colleges -- a crucible of academic pressure.
Almost two-thirds of middle- and upper-middle-income high school
students in the San Francisco Bay Area told researchers that they were
"often or always" stressed by schoolwork, according to a series of
surveys of 2,700 students conducted last year by Stanford University
researchers.
More than half the students reported that they had dropped an activity
or hobby they enjoyed because schoolwork took too much time. More than
three-quarters reported experiencing one or more stress-related
physical problems in the month prior to the survey, with more than 50%
reporting headaches, difficulty sleeping, or exhaustion. About 9% said
they had illegally used prescription drugs like Adderall or Ritalin to
stay up and study; 25% said they used stimulants like Red Bull or No-
Doz.
"On the surface, these kids look like the most privileged group in the
world," says Madeline Levine, a psychologist who has been working with
the Stanford study. "But their parents know there is something wrong.
They are not getting the basic sleep they need, the basic food they
need."
How did 11th grade become such a grind? High school has long been a
painful rite of passage. And heavy workloads are typical for elite-
college-bound kids in countries such as Japan, South Korea and France.
Teachers and principals say homework in the U.S. started increasing in
the 1990s, when national concern over falling test scores prompted the
introduction of more standardized tests, increasing pressure on high
schools to toughen their curricula.
Demographic Surge
The increasing competitiveness of college admissions -- fueled by a
demographic surge in the number of teenagers that is expected to crest
next year -- advanced preparation for applying to college to junior
year from first semester of senior year. Guidance counselors, parents
and college-admissions officers now urge students to start taking
advanced-placement courses -- often with a minimum of 90 minutes of
homework a night -- in junior year, as well as to start building a
portfolio of extracurricular activities and community-service projects
to bolster their applications.
High schools, too, have became more competitive, vying for top
rankings on lists of the "best" high schools by encouraging students
to take advanced-placement courses, a common measure of high school
excellence. More than 60% of the students at Farmington High, a public
school in this middle- and upper-middle-class bedroom community near
Hartford, take at least one advanced-placement course; 80% of all
students go on to four-year colleges.
Faced with such pressures on their kids, some parents find themselves
in the paradoxical position of urging their high school children to
work less and play more.
Tim Breslin, principal of Farmington High, recently talked to his own
daughter -- a junior at a different high school -- about cutting back
some of her activities and classes. These include advanced-placement
history and English, voice lessons, mock trial competition, vice
president of student council, jazz ensemble, an SAT preparation
course, crew and a boyfriend.
"I asked her: 'Do you think you can drop something?' " says Mr.
Breslin. "She said 'no.' "
Ms. Glickman is a talkative, outgoing girl with an easy laugh and an
open manner. She thinks about becoming an elementary-school teacher or
maybe going into international relations. "I love politics," she says.
Like most teens, she enjoys spending the occasional Saturday at the
mall and going out to Chili's and Ruby Tuesday with friends. She
attended the prom last weekend. But she also likes renting a movie and
watching it at home with her mother. (Her father passed away in 1993.
Her older sister attends New York's Colgate University.)
"When you talk to her, she is very mature and self-aware," says Ms.
Glickman's guidance counselor, Sheilah McConnell. "But she can be
silly as much as serious."
Ms. Glickman typically wakes up at 6 to get ready for a school day
that begins at 7:30 a.m. The night before, she packs her lunch --
usually a bottle of water, a ham-and-cheese sandwich, and a treat like
Scooby-Doo fruit snacks. The cafeteria at Farmington High School
offers a wide selection of dishes. But Ms. Glickman's packed schedule
doesn't have time for a sit-down lunch because one of her elective
classes, chorus, meets at lunchtime. Her chorus teacher lets the kids
quickly grab lunch out of paper bags in the back of class.
Hours of Homework
As she moves from class to class, the demands of being a junior pile
up. Honors Spanish -- 30 minutes of homework a night. Advanced-
placement English -- 30 to 90 minutes a night, depending on which
books or documents the class is studying. Honors pre-calculus --
another hour of homework. Honors biology -- 30 minutes more. At the
end of the day comes Ms. Glickman's favorite class and her toughest --
advanced-placement history, with two hours of homework a night,
including reading and regular essays.
Total: an average of four-and-a-half to five-and-a-half hours of
homework a night.
"Sometimes at school I will stress out when I start adding up
everything I have to do tonight," says Ms. Glickman. She typically
goes to sleep at 11:30 p.m., though sometimes she needs to stay up
later to finish a project or study for a big test. "There's not a lot
of sleep going on," she says. Her 98 average ranks near the top of her
class, school officials say. "I need to put in all the effort
possible," she says. "If I get a grade back that I don't want, I say,
'Why didn't I work harder?' "
As Ms. Glickman heads off to a study hall, a group of juniors gathers
in a conference room to talk about the pressures they face. Many are
taking two or three advanced-placement courses, playing sports and
spending time on after-school activities.
"Sometimes you don't know whether you are doing things because you
want to or because it looks good on your résumé," says Daniel Jin, who
is taking four advanced-placement courses, plays lacrosse, is on
student council and involved in an after-school community-service
program. "You have to be careful you're not doing things just to get
them on your college application."
Kevin Putney has a brother at Dartmouth. He says his brother finds
college less pressured than junior year of high school. "I know that
my parents -- they want me to be happy. They would like me to get out
more," he says. "But with all the work I have I can't get out as much
as they would like."
Students say that while parents may tell them to have more balance in
their lives, they also feel pressure from parents to excel. "If you
get good grades, your parents let you do things -- a car when you get
a license, a later curfew," says Kelsey Darch, who has gotten both.
Todd Darch, Kelsey's father, says that getting his daughter a car
means less driving for him as well as "a reward for good grades and
good behavior." He says he only asks that his daughter "put her best
effort forward. If her best effort meant a C in a course, that would
be fine."
"Every week or so my Dad sends me a text message: 'Do what others
won't today so you can do what others can't tomorrow,' " says Jordan
Haviland. "My parents have been so good to me, I feel like I would be
letting them down if I didn't get into an Ivy League school."
Mr. Haviland's father, Timothy, says he doesn't press his son to get
into a certain college, although he suspects Jordan does feel pressure
because his older brother goes to Harvard and his older sister to
Brown.
"I think he probably wants to keep up," says Mr. Haviland, who works
for an investment company. "These kids put a fair amount of pressure
on themselves. They read the papers and go on the Internet and they
see how many students are applying to some of these schools."
Some students say that pressure comes from inside themselves as much
as it does from parents. "The whole game is who is beating [whom],"
says Spencer Noon, looking across the table at Mr. Jin with a smile.
"In the end, if I don't get into Harvard and Dan Jin does, I will be
upset."
Keeping Up
Mr. Breslin, the principal, says Farmington High sometimes reschedules
tests and other events if students complain the pressure is too great.
But he doesn't favor suggestions by some parents that the school limit
the advanced-placement courses or activities that students participate
in.
"We try to make it so kids make thoughtful choices about what they are
doing. But if a student says they want to take an AP course or five AP
courses, and their parents support them, it is very hard to limit that
student," says Mr. Breslin. "They don't want to experience all this
pressure, but they feel that in order to keep up with everyone else
they have to."
Classes for Ms. Glickman end around 2:30 p.m., but her day isn't even
half over. Typically she spends two hours after school working on the
school newspaper, where she is news editor. She also volunteers for a
program that works with disabled students and helps them participate
in sporting events.
She used to play volleyball freshman and sophomore year but stopped
because "it was just for fun."
"I knew junior year was going to be pressured," she says. "I like
volleyball but if I played it, the practices would mean I would have
four hours less for homework." Also, she says, "colleges don't want to
see you do 10 things. They want to see you doing three things
passionately."
Since March, Ms. Glickman, like many of her classmates, has been
attending an after-school SAT preparation course designed to boost
scores for the important test in the fall. That means she doesn't get
home until 9:30 p.m. two days a week to begin her homework --
interrupted by occasional forays onto Facebook to chat with and
instant message friends.
When she went to a party on a recent Saturday night, she got home at
11:30 p.m. and did homework until 2 a.m. She slept in until 11:30 a.m.
the next day.
"Over the weekend you have to choose," says Ms. Glickman. "Do you go
out or stay home so you can get your homework done? You can never do
an all-day thing."
Time for Bowling
Maria Glickman, Jennifer's mother, grew up in New York, attended
Catholic school and was the first in her family to go to college,
commuting to New York's Pace University. "I loved high school. It was
more carefree," says Maria Glickman. "We worked hard. We had a lot of
fun. There was a lot more time to just enjoy ourselves -- going ice
skating, going bowling. I don't get that sense from kids today. They
don't seem to find as much enjoyment in high school as I did."
While Maria Glickman says she urges her daughter not to work so hard
and that "getting a B is OK," she also has been encouraging her to
look at Ivy League schools including Columbia and Princeton.
At a meeting in late February to kick off the college-application
process, both her mother and Ms. McConnell, her guidance counselor,
suggested that Ms. Glickman consider some Ivy League schools. Ms.
Glickman is adamant: She wants a school that she thinks will be
challenging but less pressured. She's interested in the College of
William and Mary, American University, or Boston College, though she
recently added Brown to her list. During vacation in April, Maria
Glickman suggested stopping by Princeton on a family trip "just to see
the campus," but her daughter said no.
"She said she doesn't want so much pressure in college -- she wants to
enjoy her four years," says Maria Glickman, who says she supports her
daughter's decision. "I want her to find a place where she will be
happy and comfortable."
Ms. Glickman recently started a project in her "Personal Wellness"
class. The assignment: change one aspect of your daily health routine
to reduce stress, and keep a journal of your progress.
Ms. Glickman's goal: Getting more sleep by making sure she goes to bed
at 10 every night. A friend of hers, another junior, tried the same
goal recently and couldn't do it -- too much homework.
"I am really going to try," says Ms. Glickman with a laugh. "We'll
have to see."
Write to Jonathan Kaufman at jonathan.kaufman.DeleteThis@wsj.com
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