Being in high school is hard; constantly dealing with the stress that’s put on you to be the best you can be. As a high schooler taking mostly advanced classes, I feel stressed most days and usually blame it on homework. But is that really the issue?

In high school, homework is unavoidable. Sometimes it is necessary to be prepared for the next day’s plan in class. Usually there is fluctuation in the amount of homework teachers give in a night so the work is spaced out.  So why is it homework that people are blaming their stress on?

In a study done by 60 HHS students, majority sophomores, 50.8% of them say that they are stressed out by a balance of school, family, and friends, while 39.3% say they are stressed out mainly by school.

While school is one of the big concerns of stress, students are also stressed out by other things going on in their life. As a school, there is not much focus on helping students with stress; the main focus at HHS is academic excellence and then the needs of students fall after that.

Students have many different ways of coping with stress. Music is the most helpful as 70.5% of students say it is what they do to calm their stress. 31.1% percent say watching TV or talking it out helps, 49.2% say crying calms them down, and 9.8% say reading helps. Some students say eating and sleeping are stress relievers too, along with working out or the practice of meditation.

So, what can the school do to help with the stress that students have?

In general, most students that took the survey say that the school should lessen the homework load, and tea

chers should collaborate over the amount of homework given. This tactic, while helpful for some, would mean more packed days and stress for the teachers.

Having to talk to every teacher in different subjects would be a big load for the teachers to figure out. Sometimes homework is something that has to be done to continue on with the lesson plan. Yes, making the homework load smaller would benefit the students, but it would hurt the teachers, and end up hurting the education.

Some people also want to make focus period longer, but that would mess up the length of classes, and give less time to teach. This could possibly make the homework load more, and with less class time to do it.

Students also recommended that the school have more ways of coping at the school. A student suggested that the school have a certain person, like a counselor, to be on hand for the students to talk to. At HHS, we have counselors assigned to students, but they are mostly used for academics and classes. It would be more efficient to have a person specifically assigned for dealing with the stress of students or just any personal issues they have. Some students also suggest giving things like stress balls just to help with the little stresses in the day.

A big change at highlands this year is the chance of student involvement. As a school, there have been changes that work on making the student body happier throughout the day. Like playing music throughout to halls during class switches, impromptu pep rallies, or even enjoying pancakes made by teachers in the morning. Activates like these are something that the student body says helps greatly with stress. Being able to have a time of day where you can just relax while not having to worry about what test you have, or what’s going on at home is very beneficial to the students.

Until a change for students starts to be made, the stress students face will only continue to become more serious. Change has already started to happen this year but, more needs to be done to get this issue under control.