Essential Elements 4: Academic Struggles, Stress, and Achievement

Academic Struggles, Stress, and Achievement

Introduction

The primary purpose of a school is, of course, to educate its students. Despite all of the other distractions, challenges, and adolescent angst, they must still attend classes, do homework, take tests, and strive for excellence. Often, boarding schools are presented as places which demand perfection, where students are pushed to their limits. They’re being groomed for success, for leadership roles, for acceptance into top-tier colleges. Often, they’re under immense stress as a result, jockeying for position in a cut-throat struggle for valedictorian or recognition. Whether they come from a privileged background and must live up to a family legacy, or are on a scholarship and must constantly justify their own presence, these teens must never lose sight of their goals. As they juggle academics, athletics, romance, and other passions, they discover what truly matters to them.

Relevant Passages:

1) At CHF, teachers had too many students and too many discipline problems. The entire staff was overworked, right down to the office aids. Classes were big, and getting extra help wasn’t easy. Not that a lot of students even wanted extra help. Sure, there were a few kids who worked their butts off, but the vast majority did the bare minimum, which basically meant that they usually showed up for school. And some didn’t even do that.

Brookwood was, clearly, the polar opposite. From what I could tell, students and teachers alike took academics extremely seriously. This fact fell into the category of “sounded good from halfway across the country” but was, up close, feeling a little scary. Especially since I was on a good-size scholarship, and if I didn’t keep up my grades, the school had the right to renege and give the money and the spot to someone else. Which, according to Headmaster Thornfield’s Vespers statistics, could be accomplished at the drop of a hat.

--Without Annette, by Jane B. Mason

Passage Analysis

Here, narrator Josie Little reflects on the immense pressure to succeed academically that is placed on Brookwood students, and how it differs from the standards of her old public high school back in Wisconsin. While in this section, we don’t get an idea of the considerable workload required by her classes, it’s still quite telling that already, she’s worried about the possibility of failure and being forced to withdraw. What looked good from afar in theory has become much more daunting in actual practice… something that can be said about just about any of the schools represented here. Exclusive prep schools are focused on preparing their students for college, and aim at getting their graduates into the best colleges more often than not. So while Josie might be worried about her relationship with Annette, tempted by the availability of alcohol, or even lured into after-hours adventures by her new friends, she can’t afford to let her classes or grades slip. Her teachers are demanding, her homework is excessive, and the pressure is most definitely real. After all, the school administration doesn’t care about who’s dating whom, or what sort of drama might be occurring between friends. It exists to enforce rules and regulations, maintain order and tradition, and perform the functions expected of a school. It’s up to the students to do the work… and Josie’s acceptance of her tenuous position at Brookwood shapes her determination to succeed.

2)

I grab a tote bag and proceed to fill it with all the books I’ll need for the term. My physics book is a tome, and I have a flash of anxiety when I note the price. It’s a shame to spend so much money on a subject I’m sure to hate. Though in all honesty, I don’t love any of my classes. I do just well enough in all of them but don’t excel at any, Ms. Randall has explained to me, “Being a mediocre generalist is not going to capture the imagination of any college admissions officer.” My first official meeting with her is next week. Can’t wait.

--Going Geek, by Charlotte Huang

3)

I lay there with my books, finishing the small amount of homework I’d been assigned—just a couple review problems in Calculus. Then I opened a paperback and began reading. We were supposed to read “Rappaccini’s Daughter” and write a response paper on it, but I had until Wednesday. So I read the first page, then put it down beside my pillow and stared up at the ceiling.

--Winger, by Andrew Smith

4)

At the start of the second week of classes, however, Frankie switched out of Latin and into an elective called Cities, Art, and Protest that sounded like more fun. The class was taught by a teacher named Ms. Jensson. She was new to Alabaster and wore beaded cardigan sweaters and unusual skirts. She had a master’s from Columbia in art history and told everyone she’d come to Alabaster to escape New York City—but then here she was, spending all her time discussing it in class. So ironic.

It was the first time Frankie had ever taken a course that couldn’t be described in a single word: French. Biology. Latin. History.

--The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart

Multimodal works

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjHORRHXtyI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAe7MoKtmOw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMycxm3fDyE

Annotated Scholarly References

Olthouse, Jill M., Edmunds, Alan L., & Sauder, Adrienne E. (2014). School Stories: How Do Exemplary Teen Writers Portray Academics? Roeper Review, 36(3), 168-177.

This paper looks at academics as depicted by teen writers through stories and poems, providing a valuable look at their experience through their own words. It’s an authentic examination, which may or may not prove at odds with the academic experience portrayed in young adult fiction written by adults, some of whom, like John Green in Looking for Alaska, are drawing from their own memories. 

Robison-Awana, P., Kehle, T. J., & Jenson, W. R. (1986). But what about smart girls? Adolescent self-esteem and sex role perceptions as a function of academic achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 78(3), 179-183.

An analysis of the interaction and correlation between self-esteem, academic success, and gender roles with regards to teenage girls, and how it also relates to their relationship with the opposite sex. Frankie Landau-Banks is a prime example of how this phenomenon manifests in young adult literature, given her attempt to challenge the way she believes others, including men, perceive her as an intelligent girl.