This report, which was released in June, 5438+ 10, outlines many important steps to improve students' happiness, but it only briefly mentions a key factor that causes students' pressure, and in doing so, it makes an unfortunate mistake that is common in the whole higher education. The authors of the report use the data of their student survey as part of the survey. The survey received 704 students' feedback, showing that as many as 82% of undergraduate respondents thought WPI was "under too much academic pressure".
Of course, academic stress may come from many different sources. The high-risk examination culture in STEM course is one of such sources, as well as mentality and heavy workload. However, the biggest culprit may be a deep-rooted factor in our educational infrastructure: achievement. Although the report suggests that WPI should make better measures to identify students in trouble, make more effective plans to help students regain their vitality, and make more plans to make teachers reflect more on their curriculum design and teaching practice, it hardly mentions the great anxiety brought to students by scores and traditional scoring models. Why not? Anyone who mainly flaunts himself as "rigorous" is the first word used to describe WPI in the report, which has a vested interest in maintaining the grading system responsible for the strict closing of the project. In addition, for many scholars, questioning scores is an excessive bridge because these evaluation methods have been integrated into the structure of higher education.
At the same time, we have strong evidence that grades will make students feel uncomfortable physically, emotionally and psychologically. More specifically, the pressure of children, teenagers and college students on their grades, as well as the pressure they feel from their parents and teachers, is directly related to the widely reported mental health crisis in these age groups. The incidence of anxiety, depression and even suicidal thoughts has risen sharply, and academic pressure related to grades is the main reason for this escalation. We now have evidence from major studies that these health problems have become more and more serious over time, and they cannot be improved without some serious and sustained intervention. Part of our efforts in this regard must be devoted to checking the damage caused by grades.
According to a report of Pew Research Center in 20 19, 70% of the adolescents aged from 13 to 17 surveyed think that anxiety and depression are the main problems of their peers, and many of these people are now our students' college classes-they think that the pressure of getting good grades is the most important factor leading to these mental health problems (88 Teenagers who have experienced depression (aged 65,438+02 to 65,438+07 in the survey of 2065,438+07) and attempted suicide (8.9% in the survey of grade 9 to grade 65,438+02 in 2065,438+09, according to CDC data) are even more troublesome. Statistics on the rate of depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation A very similar story is circulated among college students. Academic stress is directly related to these health crises, and grades are the main source of this pressure.