Are Schools Inadvertently Making Students More Stressed?

# The question at the center Students report grades, tests, homework and heavy workloads as top school-related stressors. Cathy Vatterott, author of The Teens Are Not Alright, says many school responses — SEL lessons, mindfulness sessions, wellness programs — treat symptoms but leave the stressful environments intact. Her argument: to support adolescent mental health, schools must change everyday practices that shape students' experiences.

# Practices that increase stress Vatterott highlights several routine practices that push students toward chronic stress:

• The secondary-school schedule. Seven-period days with rapid transitions and short lunches demand continuous mental switching. The schedule persists for convenience and tradition rather than student needs.
• Homework overload. Many secondary schools confuse quantity with rigor, compliance with responsibility, and replication with preparation. Excess homework trains students to comply rather than to manage independent learning.

# What a wellness paradigm looks like Vatterott recommends reframing student well-being as part of health and schooling. Concrete shifts she describes include:

• Reconsidering schedule design to reduce cognitive switching and allow reasonable lunch and transition times.
• Rethinking homework practice: assign purposeful tasks tied to clear goals, and avoid using homework completion as a primary grade metric.
• Changing assessment design: communicate expectations clearly, ensure students are prepared for assessments, and allow sufficient time so finishing is realistic for everyone.
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• Expanding adult responsibility for well-being so every teacher and staff member contributes to a supportive environment.

# Autonomy without chaos Adolescents need meaningful autonomy to develop self-regulation and responsibility. Vatterott rejects the idea that student autonomy necessarily undermines structure or standards. Practical implementations she describes include offering choice within assignments, making learning goals transparent, and using assessments that require demonstration of understanding rather than rote replication. These approaches maintain rigor while giving students control over how they meet clear expectations.

# Practical changes schools can try now Schools can start with targeted, low-barrier adjustments:

• Audit homework across subjects to identify overlapping heavy nights and remove redundant assignments.

• Standardize assessment windows and allow equitable time so students aren't penalized by time pressure.
• Train staff to design assignments that build independence, not compliance.

# Bottom line Vatterott urges schools to move beyond seeing SEL and wellness programs as fixes. The environment created by schedules, grading rules and instructional practices drives much of students' school-related stress. Adjusting those structures can keep academic rigor while reducing chronic stress and supporting adolescent development.