1. Grades, the most important thing to deal with in school, also seems to be the thing students struggle with the most. Grades have become increasingly important in high schools today than it ever has in the past. But with the increasing importance, comes the increasing stress that students experience over small items such as homework.

No matter whether you’re in an advanced class or not, the stress of even the slightest mistake on an assignment or project can drop your grade like a roller coaster, except the problem is that grades rarely feel as if they can go up and return to their former state.

The constant worry of grades distracts students from the purpose of classes, which is to learn. Without any attention being directed to learning important subjects, the purpose of not only classes, but overall school feel useless.

Also the stress of one assignment can distract from getting help with a certain subject as well as future lessons, only alienating the understanding of the lesson, and thus any future assignments. One bad assignment should not be able to cause a domino effect as drastic as this.

According to an article from the Stanford Report on February 23, 2005, some educators consider stress on grades a health epidemic, and the relationship between the stress and cheating to succeed. This clearly isn’t a good way to succeed in education for very few circumstances.

Is there any solutions to this? Luckily there is: leniency. The stress of failing is constantly on one’s mind, it’s always good to take a moment to step back and improve on subjects that can be struggling previously. A second attempt or a make up assignment that can improve the grade of the assignment can help revise one’s overall grade tremendously. Sometimes even just a little hint of reason can go a long way to relieve stress.

Another great tool is communication. A conversation between a teacher and a student can also help discover and explain the problems that a student or teacher may possibly have in order to find a solution. Practicing communication can benefit well with future events in life whether in college or a career to help the possible problems within those fields.

There are policies in place within some of the classes here at Eaglecrest that help students with problems and frustration with assignments, and more classes and teachers are giving more chances and time to help students succeed. However, as learning evolves and changes with time, we need to think of what other actions we can take to help alleviate the stress.