Most adults really don’t understand the
stress that teens face on a daily basis. While most
"teen problems" seem trivial to teachers and other adults,
they should know if it matters to the student, it will
affect their lives either positively or negatively.
According to safeyouth.org, almost one in
every five teens has seriously considered attempting
suicide. More than one in six has made plans to attempt
suicide, and more than one in 12 has made a suicide attempt
in the past year.
Those statistics prove that today’s teens
are under stress and their "trivial" or "silly" problems
must be taken seriously by adults and dealt with
accordingly.
Tony Brower, junior, says that he agrees
that teens have a lot of stress. "It all depends on what’s
going on at home and the type of people they hang around."
So, do adults and teachers understand how much stress teens
are under?
"Well, I think some of the younger
teachers understand," Brower says, "but the older ones don’t
cause back then they didn’t have the kind of problems we
have today." Wesley Harris, junior, thinks the biggest
pressure teens face is peer pressure. He also says that
teachers do know the pressures that teens face. Sometimes,
"they’ve been through it before so they know how to deal
with it," says Brower.
"I think that anyone who has kids
understands young people’s stress." says Mr. Jira, assistant
principal, "I also think that the teachers are stressed too
and sometimes they don’t know how much stress the kids are
under."
Maybe if teachers and students could meet
in the middle then these statistics might not be so bad. So,
instead of peer mediation and just having a school
counselor, there should be some initiative to talk to
students. Perhaps if teachers and students feel comfortable
talking, it could make a difference.
