Americans do schooling wrong, and kids have to worry about getting shot on top of being overworked. I wouldn’t feel incentivized to go to school either.
> Finally, a psychiatrist told Demsky about a condition that affects a growing number of students with severe anxiety: school avoidance.
That's not a "condition" and shouldn't be de facto medicalized. Treat anxiety when it doesn't match reality, sure, but there are plenty of perfectly logical reasons for students to resist school as it currently exists.
School shootings are still insanely rare. When you account for high crime areas the likelihood of an average kid experiencing a school shooting is so low it should make you question anyone trying to make it seem otherwise.
This may be akin to the craze of fear of terrorism that swept the general public after September 11th. I found that craze to be entirely irrational, but it would hardly be appropriate for the same individuals to see their kids as being particularly irrational, if their fear of being shot is real.
As far as I can tell, fear of being shot is not the primary factor why students don't want to go to school. The article, for example, doesn't mention global warming / climate change (our planet burning) or AI (possible humanity ending). How incentivized would you be to spend your youth working hard for a future that might not exist?
But the shooter drills are incredibly common. Just because it doesn't happen often doesn't mean children aren't often being forced to think about it happening.
Not sufficiently rare enough to avoid transforming education in a myriad of ways, from clear backpacks to endless drills to metal detectors at the door to armed people in body armor walking around.
And the idea of having to account for "high crime areas" as if it is a normal thing for a subset of the population to be dealing with guns on a regular basis in schools is a very American attitude.
While outright shootings might be rare, bullying by fellow students and teachers is common. Shootings might just be the straw that breaks the camels back.
What does this mean? Kids in high crime areas are still kids, you still have to count them when they get shot.
The harm of a school shooting is certainly not contained to the specific individuals who got shot either, which if one of these has happened near you you know. Everyone at that school and to some extent the entire city is affected socially and psychologically. They are a particularly powerful terrorism for this reason.
From what I understand, the Japanese K-12 system makes the US system look like Disneyland.
They do have kids out of high school that are quite good with STEM stuff, but I have heard that bullying is a big problem.
As I am a bit "on the spectrum," my grade school years were absolutely awful. I suspect a lot of folks here can relate, but we have a way of attracting bullies that seems innate. It's crazy.
I did enjoy tech school, though, and have done fairly well in the working world.
YellOh|2 years ago
> Finally, a psychiatrist told Demsky about a condition that affects a growing number of students with severe anxiety: school avoidance.
That's not a "condition" and shouldn't be de facto medicalized. Treat anxiety when it doesn't match reality, sure, but there are plenty of perfectly logical reasons for students to resist school as it currently exists.
rajin444|2 years ago
yboris|2 years ago
As far as I can tell, fear of being shot is not the primary factor why students don't want to go to school. The article, for example, doesn't mention global warming / climate change (our planet burning) or AI (possible humanity ending). How incentivized would you be to spend your youth working hard for a future that might not exist?
citizenkeen|2 years ago
MattGaiser|2 years ago
And the idea of having to account for "high crime areas" as if it is a normal thing for a subset of the population to be dealing with guns on a regular basis in schools is a very American attitude.
c00lio|2 years ago
giraffe_lady|2 years ago
What does this mean? Kids in high crime areas are still kids, you still have to count them when they get shot.
The harm of a school shooting is certainly not contained to the specific individuals who got shot either, which if one of these has happened near you you know. Everyone at that school and to some extent the entire city is affected socially and psychologically. They are a particularly powerful terrorism for this reason.
ChrisMarshallNY|2 years ago
From what I understand, the Japanese K-12 system makes the US system look like Disneyland.
They do have kids out of high school that are quite good with STEM stuff, but I have heard that bullying is a big problem.
As I am a bit "on the spectrum," my grade school years were absolutely awful. I suspect a lot of folks here can relate, but we have a way of attracting bullies that seems innate. It's crazy.
I did enjoy tech school, though, and have done fairly well in the working world.