American Stress

By Aidan H 

    In a recent story I read from the National Education Association (NEA) one of the major things they talked about was the stress both teachers and students are put under by the modern American educational system. The Overarching theme is that both teachers and their students are under far more stress than ever before seen in the educational system. As a student I have lived through that stress myself. The stress is something that is very real for many of the students that I know. The most interesting thing about this is many other countries have come up with various answers to this stress or have never had to deal with stress like teachers and students in the U.S have. 

    While I was an exchange student in Germany for a year, I was never under the same stress that is common for students in the U.S. This doesn’t mean school was any easier and most of the students in my class were struggling with school just like is common in the U.S. The difference that I found was that the students not only wanted to be in school, they also had more choice as to how they went about school. 

        In Germany there are three major types of secondary schools. Whereas in the U.S there is the single high school, Germany features 3 major secondary schools, Realschule, Gymnasium, and Hauptschule. All three look towards a different type of student. The Realschule is the most basic; it is simply put a vocational school with focus on developing individuals to become tradesmen. Hauptschule is the typical school which goes from 5th grade to 10th grade. 10th Grade in Germany is the grade at which students can graduate with a basic education. The Gymnasium is the school that focuses on helping students to prepare for the Abitur. The Abitur is the German Equivalent to an SAT though is much more individualized allowing students to take five separate exams in any five subjects that interest them. Gymnasium goes from 5th Grade to 12th or in some states 13th grade.(“The German School System”) 

While this system is much more complex than the U.S education system it accomplishes a few things, it allows students to decide what they would like to do with their life early on. It doesn’t aim to have all students going through the same education allowing people who would like to be plumbers to go down that pathway and students who would like to be doctors can go down their own individualized pathway. This eases the stress of most students as well as the teachers. The teachers aren’t given students who have no interest in what they are being taught and the students are for the most part very attentive and understanding. 

The System as a whole focuses on getting done the work that needs to be done and having homework specifically to study. The school day is at most 6 hours though it is usually only 5 hours.(“The German School System”) This allows for students to not have to devote a large amount of time to school and all that extra time allows for students to enjoy life. While stress is something that occurs sometimes, usually at the end of a semester, most of the year students enjoy school and are able to go about their lives without the stress of school that many students in the U.S endure on a daily basis. 

Germany isn’t the only country that spends less time on school then the U.S. South Korea, widely touted as having the best education system in the world, spends less time than the U.S on school, with the U.S spending on average 50% more time doing schoolwork, both in school and at home.(Meija) Russia ranked number 13 in schooling worldwide spends half the time the U.S spends doing schoolwork yet has nearly ten hours of homework weekly, 4 hours more than the average in the U.S.(Meija) 

Throughout the world school is done much differently yet somehow our school system seems to be far less effective than others. Is this because we have mismanaged how we organize our schools. Should we take lessons from European countries like Germany and divide our system to allow for students to take a more individualistic approach to schooling. Or do we instead try to minimize the amount of work that we put on both students and teachers by not spending so much time doing schoolwork. Countries throughout the world are far more efficient in terms of learning than we are and only spend a minimal amount of time in school. While no one answer is a perfect solution there must be a better method which will alleviate stress for both students and teachers. 

Alvarez, Brenda, et al. "10 Challenges Facing Public Education Today."

     National Education Association, 3 Aug. 2018, www.nea.org/

     advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/10-challenges-facing-public-education-today.

     Article that is the basis for the blog post. 

"The German School System." The German Way & More, www.german-way.com/

     history-and-culture/education/the-german-school-system/. Accessed 9 Dec.

     2020. Used to help look at the more intricate details of the German School

     System 

Mejia, Carlos. "How Much Time Do Kids around the World Spend at School?"

     Fatherly, 22 July 2020, www.fatherly.com/love-money/

     schools-days-around-world/. Accessed 9 Dec. 2020. Used for basic overview

     of time spent at school by children throughout the world.