Children Are Our Greatest Treasure. They Are Our Future

“Children are our greatest treasure. They are our future.” -Nelson Mandela. Children and young adults’ minds are like sponges. Anything they hear or see will be remembered in some way or another. But, just like a sponge, there is only so much room to consume information before it runs out of space. Many activities are thought to be important for students to do such as sports, school clubs, and part time jobs; all which take up valuable space in not only their minds, but their time of day as well. With too many expectations, there will be less drive in students to advance in both schooling and careers because of suffering mental health, too many athletics, and too much time consumption. Students tend to lose motivation for many things due
Many students become over-stressed even thinking about what they have to get done. Kim Painter, a veteran USA Today health reporter and columnist, brings the readers into a college student’s past experiences with multitasking and piling on too many activities by reporting, “I would come home overflowing with stress over the fact that I had so many things to do simultaneously. And they would say, ‘This is crazy, listen to yourself. You need to take a breath, re-evaluate and decide what you need to cut down on.’” (qtd. in Painter). She tells the readers that they do not need to take every advanced placement class or get involved in every school event to be a successful student. Lauren Biglow, the college student that was interviewed, created a video along with her family called Race to Nowhere, that describes teens who are pushed too hard by school and performance pressure. The video encourages the students to take better care of themselves, and gives the message that it is okay to cut back on things to make sure they don’t overwork themselves. It also encourages no homework over the holidays, and for parents to step in to communicate more with their children. It is quoted, “When your teen walks in from school, your first question should not be ‘How did you do on your math test?’ Instead, try asking ‘How was your day?’ You may get nothing more than ‘fine,’ and that is just fine. Many kids just need a break from school.”
Most think that working students hard will help train and grow their brains, leading to more learning and succeeding at more things. It is also said that minimal amounts of stress are good for young minds, because it helps motivate them to complete more goals. However, too much stress has been shown to lead to high blood pressure and a weakening of the immune system. It can also make someone’s body weaken and allow them to get colds more often. Having troubles falling asleep and more extreme irritability are also side effects of too much bad stress. This study shows that pushing students too much will make them burn out and lose the drive to continue on with their current activities. Too much work is being loaded onto students, especially with extracurriculars, leading to worsening mental health. Stress leads to less motivation, along with the weakening of many of the body’s systems such as the immune system. Too much negative stress levels also create less motivation and leads to fewer wants and drives to succeed or to move forward in the paths that they