European Journalists April Issue | Page 7

Young  people  feel  stressed   Every day I hear my classmates express how stressed they are, how much they have to do, that time not enough. Stress has different meanings to each individual and for people of different ages, but according to a survey by the Swedish national agency for education, two of three students in secondary schools often feel stressed. Several times a week or every day is not uncommon. The students who are keen to do well and to please their parents, teachers, and last but not least themselves may count on a 'working day' going on for 10 to 12 hours, every day of the week. Unfortunately that is no exaggeration. Our homework doesn’t end. Being an "ordinary person" with a "regular full-time job" means working for about 8 out of 24 hours. When you, tired and worn out, comes home after yet another working day most people choose to put work aside. They separate work from their personal life, because usually they have neither time nor inclination to bring work home. The 8 hours a working adult spends at his or her job in a day is not enough in our world. We can’t put away our "work" when we come home from a long, hard and exhausting day. The system expects more of us. It would be useful for adults today to live a week as a high school student. No matter how much parents and teachers nag about the fact that they also went to school, and know just what it is like I am absolutely convinced that their conception of our everyday life is so far from the truth as it can get. The requirements are not just about studying. Today's high school youth should of course have an extra job as well. "How are you otherwise going to learn to take responsibility and grow up? It's time for you to realize how it works in real life." You must keep up with the outside world, read newspapers, watch the news etc. To top it off, we always have to look good and eat right. Most preferably, should we work out three to four times a week, to keep our body in shape and be able to concentrate during the school days. As soon as I try to bring out my opinions of the excessive study requirements, the answer is 4 out of 5 times "prioritize." What many adults don’t seem to understand is the incredible pressure that is put on us youngsters. If they really want to prepare us for the adult life is it really that smart to burn us out completely before we even had time to turn 20? Pauline Johansson