Is There too Much Pressure on Children to Succeed?

From an ever younger age, children are being expected to take exams and to think about their future. Perhaps it is understandable in a globalised world with finite resources that children are facing a greater amount of pressure within the classroom. Economic growth is perceived to be vital to a nation's well-being, and without a skilled, educated population it obviously becomes more difficult to achieve any kind of growth. Thus, politicians are always tinkering with the education system in an attempt to get more children to learn vital skills and to become the best of the best.

However, in the end, all this pressure could simply backfire, since children who spend all the time studying and being told that you have to be academically successful in life to get anywhere could end up stressed and anxious the whole time. Instead of enjoying their childhood, they spend more time indoors completing their homework than playing with friends. They learn from an early age that the world is a competitive place and that to get anywhere you have to work hard. Clearly, instilling a good work ethic is a good thing, but why at such an early age?

Children are being led to believe that they have to perform well in every essay they write and exam they complete and feel that they are failing to live up to expectations if they do not perform as well as they expected or as was expected of them. Of course, it could be argued that this motivates children to try harder in future. However, it is worth recognising that not all children are academically gifted. For some children, it is always going to be difficult to achieve good grades, because they're just not that smart when it comes to a conventional education.

That doesn't mean that they cannot succeed in other areas of life. If they are given access to a vocational education, they may begin to flourish, or they may need to discover their creative side. However, in many societies it is an academic education which is viewed as being somehow superior. Politicians, entrepreneurs and others from the higher echelons of society usually attended university when they were younger and it is they who decide how to run the country. Those with a vocational education have a vital contribution to play to society, but often they are not valued as highly.

Thus, at school there tends to be a great deal of emphasis on getting children to perform well in exams, so that they have more options. Yet, even though teachers may want their students to do well, there are also administrators working within the education system who are more concerned about good grades, because of the implications for the reputation of the school. Consequently, an increasing amount of pressure is being placed on children to succeed not only for their own sake, but also for the sake of individual schools and the education system at large.

It certainly seems that there is too much pressure on children to succeed when so many are becoming stressed and depressed about their future and failing to enjoy their childhood as much as they perhaps should.