"But in reality, kids mature differently." - This is a common theme I’ve seen throughout the course so far, as well as throughout life; everyone is different, so does curriculum box kids into stressful learning that doesn’t always work for them?

"In 2010, Ms. Brown’s students spent 1 hour and 40 minutes learning academics and over 2 hours playing. In 2021, there are 4 hours of academics. Recess is the only unstructured playtime (25 minutes)." - I just found that the way the times have shifted to give young students less play time is wild to me, and something I haven’t considered since I mostly focus on high school students.

"School psychologist Rebecca Comizio works at a New Canaan Country School, a private school in suburban Connecticut for kids ages 3 to grade 9. She sees many sources of pressure around achievement and stressed out kids. She said hiring tutors for children who are grade level is “a terrible message to send. Kids get the sense they aren’t capable or doing enough."

“We set them up to be very anxious,” she said." - As I mentioned before, most of my focus is on high school students because that’s the age range I want to teach when I graduate, but seeing this issue focus on kindergarten and the lasting effects these pressures have opened my eyes to a new perspective.

"Regardless, it is possible that the effects of homework are not linear. Some evidence suggests that increasing homework duration can improve academic performance, but there is a point where too much homework can actually lead to a decline in performance (Ackerman et al., 2011; Krejtz et al., 2018; Reteig et al., 2019)" - Plenty of research has been done on Homework's effects on academic outcome, but seeing this article define it as non-linear shows there is still much to be discussed, especially now when considering mental health and actually learning.

"Several systematic reviews have explored the effectiveness of homework in improving students' performance. However, they assumed a linear relationship between the time spent on homework and performance, without considering how homework duration affects students' autonomous motivation." - Once again tying back into the linear relationships discusses previously, but now this study focuses more on motivation or optimistic learned in the phrasing of my question.

"Previous studies have also demonstrated that the relationship between homework and academic performance is influenced by factors such as the gender (Cadime et al., 2017), grade level (Başet al., 2017), region (Zhu, 2015), publication year (Gill & Schlossman, 2004; Twenge et al., 2004), measurement tool (Fan et al., 2017), type of homework (Qiao & Fan, 2020), and subject (Fan et al., 2017; Trautwein & Lüdtke, 2007)." - Like previous articles, bringing up specific groups of students based on other factors comes into play here as well as something to consider when looking at homework.

"With such a high a standard, it may be easier to disregard those who do not perform as well academically in China, which presents a potential contrast with traditional American values." - Although this scholarly journal focuses on China as well as America, I found that knowing/hearing how other countries also handle work load and failing in comparison, and seeing the more harsh nature of other countries.

"'a significant number of current studies are looking everywhere but the classroom and considering everything but the student perspective to explain why school children learn well or poorly' ( Gentilucci, 2004)" - I feel we’ve talked about this in classes, especially during presentations, about how much more impactful the student’s voices were on this topic, which is why I underlined it here as well, since it seems to be a new common theme when it comes to new research.

"On the other hand, the high importance that the American students attach to the SAT/ACT is worth further investigating, especially in the current test-optional environment. More consistent with the holistic college admissions process that emphasizes personal qualities and contributions, American students also appear to place much higher emphasis on leadership and extracurricular activities in comparison to their Chinese counterparts" - One of the points I want to cover is not only how workload can put pressure on students, but also the need to have extracurriculars, leadership, or volunteer hours outside of class that can limit students time and put more stress on them. 

"Adolescents from lower-affluence families are more likely to experience lower family and peer support, fewer opportunities for daily family meals and greater difficulties communicating with parents." - Once again, we see out stakeholder become more specific, this time looking at how social class can also affect students outside of the classroom.

"The report underscores the need for continued efforts to support adolescents as they navigate the ongoing effects of the pandemic on their social and emotional well-being." - Looking at the lasting effects of the COVID pandemic will become a main point of evidence as we move forward, since we still see it's effects today.

"Address academic pressure. Schools must tackle rising stress levels through systematic approaches, implementing balanced homework policies, providing study skills support, scheduling regular student-teacher check-ins, and ensuring teachers are trained to recognize and respond to signs of academic stress, particularly among girls." - Essentially, this is the concept I have been researching and to see it used here as a solution brings forth evidence to my work.

"We know that classrooms may be quite messy, a hodgepodge of actors’ beliefs, demands and histories; multiple transactions; different meanings; and the contingencies of everyday life. In practice, the distinction between curriculum questions (what) and questions of pedagogy (how) is difficult to make visible (Vernon, 2020)." - Looking once again at the idea that everyone learns differently, and how different schools teach differently is something important to consider.

"One distinctive feature in the empirical data is teacher-centred teaching, in which the characteristics and aims of the school subject are in the foreground. Repertoires of teaching generally include monologues (lecturing) and recitation (the presentation of content, combined with questions to determine what students know) in which subject-specific concepts are related to one another to help students connect different types of content." - If this is a common theme, how can schools make learning less of a lecture and make the work load/learning more engaged?

"Teachers constantly move between subject-disciplinary knowledge and experience-based knowledge, from the world of students and must balance between these in their curriculum making.... By following the decision-making processes in the minds of teachers, we can see that judgements and considerations regarding the activities of teaching and the presentation of content are made based on the teachers’ knowledge of the students’ capacities and what they know to be challenging or tangible for them." - Once again looking at a teachers role in this, seeing as curriculum can be a tricky thing to balance, some of the work falls into teachers, which can provide evidence for how to add balance.

"The pressure to gain admission to a selective college or university is one of the main factors identified in the popular and empirical literatures as driving the conditions that lead to high rates of chronic stress among high-achieving youth (Luthar, 2003; Pope and Simon, 2005; Porter, 2007). Indeed, in the private school context, families are explicit in their expectations that these institutions prepare their children well to enter top-tier colleges and universities by guiding students to develop an exemplary academic and extracurricular portfolio, and youth are well aware of these parental expectations (Luthar and Becker, 2002; Gall and Stixrd, 2008)." - I'm glad this article brought up college admissions, since this is a main point of tension when it comes to students work load, specifically extracurricular activities in addition to academics.

"As one female student explained, “Yeah, if you didn’t have stress, you wouldn’t push yourself as hard. It’s almost like, kind of like adrenaline. It pushes you harder and it like makes you do things that maybe you wouldn’t be able to if you didn’t have that pressure.” These students adopted a mindset of stress as enhancing (Crum et al., 2013), that is, experiencing stress leads to better academic performance, “if I didn’t feel stress in terms of school, I probably would not be doing as well as I am doing” related a male student." - hearing direct student quotes can give more meaning to evidence used with my questions, seeing as they are the main point being studied. Here, I find the balance students find with "good stress" a great point to bring up.

"A veteran teacher and chair of her department noted:

'I think we expect and demand a lot of our students and I think the types of students they are and the colleges they want to get into leads them to do so many things that stress is just going to be automatic. We demand them to do so many things that… how could they not be (stressed)?'" - Although it's not a student perspective, I think Teacher input could also give evidence, seeing as they see the direct results in the classroom and are the ones doing the learning.

"Additionally, victims of school bullying are more likely to develop chronic stress than their peers—as well as depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues.[16]" - I've been mainly focusing on students outside lives and extracurriculars when looking at student stress and forget about student's social lives also playing a big role. This article let's me think about this.

"For that reason, it can be helpful to focus your classroom goals on learning and growth rather than on grades alone. Additionally, be mindful of stressors or commitments outside of the classroom and allow extensions on assignment deadlines for students with extenuating circumstances.[10]" - Looking at what teacher's can do on their level is important in this argument as well.

"Try not to schedule too many important projects or tests on the same day. Instead, space big assignments out to avoid overwhelming students.[10]" - Again, looking at what teacher's specifically can do to work around curriculum standards.

"So there’s also built into it a whole series of assumptions about social structure and capacity. It was driven by an economic imperative of the time...And the consequence of that is that many brilliant people think they’re not because they’ve been judged against this particular view of the mind." - I want to look into specific graphics of students because there is a wide arrange that come from different classes, races, genders, and so on, and how this also effects how much work they take on in school and in their personal lives.

" It seems to me not a coincidence, totally, that the instance of ADHD has risen in parallel with the growth of the standardized testing." - I hadn't thought about the mental health aspect, and he also ties this in with the rise of technology, which is interesting.

"Schools are still pretty much organized on factory lines: ringing bells, separate facilities, specialized into separate subjects. We still educate children by batches, you know, we put them through the system by age group....It’s essentially about conformity and it’s increasingly about that as you look at the growth of standardized testing and standardized curricula. And it’s about standardization." - I just find this line interesting, since I've never personally been good at standardization and it plays a big role when looking at stress and curriculum.

"“Their findings were troubling: Research showed that excessive homework is associated with high stress levels, physical health problems and lack of balance in children’s lives; 56% of the students in the study cited homework as a primary stressor in their lives,” according to the CNN story."

"That means that by asking our children to put in an hour or more per day of dedicated homework time, we are not only not helping them, but — according to the aforementioned studies — we are hurting them, both physically and emotionally.

What’s more is that homework is, as the name implies, to be completed at home, after a full day of learning that is typically six to seven hours long with breaks and lunch included. However, a study by the APA on how people develop expertise found that elite musicians, scientists and athletes do their most productive work for about only four hours per day."

"School work assigned and completed outside of school hours is not without its benefits. Numerous studies have shown that regular homework has a hand in improving student performance and connecting students to their learning. When reviewing these studies, take them with a grain of salt; there are strong arguments for both sides, and only you will know which solution is best for your students or school."