Archive: Opinions

School Board member Glenn Swanson told the Board Wednesday that he has been hearing more and more about student stress.  He noted that everyone has jam-packed schedules, and students are finding it hard to deal with the many demands they face in and outside of school.  It does seem that kids are overburdened today.  While some studies say that it is a myth that kids are over-burdened, that doesn't mean that some kids aren't.  In a small town like Lansing where we all do a lot, is it possible to do this much without being over-burdened?

I know adults who are overwhelmed by everything they have to do, but most adults can cope most of the time.  For myself I have only 'lost it' when there have been inexplicable technical problems with our Web server while I also had to come up with an issue of the online newspaper and work for Web site clients.  The uncertainty of how and whether technical problems will be resolved is enough to put me over the edge.  But most of the time I feel I am handling day to day stress reasonably well.

Kids don't have the tools to do that.  Lansing school classes average about 100 kids, give or take.  With four classes in each of our three schools, that means there are only around 400 kids per school to do everything -- sports, drama, music, art, robotics and other science, scouts, service programs.  And maintain decent grades, participate in religious communities and have reasonable social lives -- stressful in a class all its own for teenagers.

Several years ago I tried to recruit some of the student newspaper writers to send articles to the Star.  I told them they could send the same articles they were writing for the student newspaper, because our readers don't overlap that much.  I argued that it would be a great addition to their resumes to be able to say they were published in a professional newspaper.  I had exactly zero takers.  They said they were too busy.  Too busy to send copies of already written articles in email.  Man, that's busy!

In the inner city the conventional wisdom is to get kids into after-school programs to keep them engaged and busy so they don't take the wrong life path with drugs and gangs and Heaven knows what else.  Is that really an issue in rural Lansing or small communities like ours?

So what is the answer?  We all love how much our kids do in Lansing, despite the small population.  Maybe we should love it less.  Maybe kids don't need to be this busy.  Maybe some down time wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Lansing School Superintendent Chris Pettograsso said her leadership team is already talking about student stress and how to help kids cope.  She said they are planning to put together a panel to speak to kids about the problem.  Last year Lansing school officials met with the County probation officer, who told them students aged 6 to 9 years old are the fastest growing group of children dealing with stress.  So we're not just talking about teenagers.

Kids that young shouldn't be having that much trouble coping.  They do not have control over their lives, but we adults do.  We are doing this to our children.  It is up to us to come up with ways to let our kids -- here's a novel concept -- just be kids.  I am not saying they shouldn't do anything outside of school.  Of course they should.  But what's the point of growing up in an idyllic rural community if you can't just enjoy it?

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