Collegedegree 9 | - Freelance Writer
Jul 13, 2018 | #1
These days, parents are too focused on a sense of helping their child reach his full potential. They try to fill every waking minute of the child with either an academic or extra-curricular activity that can help the child reach their full potential so that they can get into the best high schools, prep schools, colleges, and universities in the future. The problem is that constant studying causes learning fatigue among students. When a student is all burned out from studying, the desire of the parents to have the child achieve greatness academically speaking becomes moot. That is why it is important to balance rest and relaxation with the rigid and demanding academic and extra-curricular activities of the child. Here are a few signs of academic fatigue, leading to student burnout that parents need to be on the lookout for.
Dreading School Days
When a student feels like he is never prepared enough for the upcoming school day and is observed to be constantly cramming schoolwork into the weekend when he should be resting, this is a sure sign of burnout.
Some students show physical manifestations of this burnout by falling asleep at the dining table, dozing off during family movie night, and taking constant powernaps while working on his homework. Once the morning comes, some parents are surprised to see the student already at work at the computer, working on left over homework. Even as they walk out the door to take the child to school, the child often declares, "I really hate school days..."
Time is Never Enough
There may be times when a child takes a nap after school, during the trip to his extra-curricular activity and the next one after that and the next one...Then slowly, the child will begin asking his parents if he can stop doing one or two activities after school. Just so he can catch up on schoolwork and projects.
While extra-curricular activities help the child develop other physical and mental faculties, as well as help them grow independently and learn the meaning of team work, when their schoolwork becomes so much that they find they need to sacrifice activities they enjoy doing for the sake of academics, then something is wrong. If a child tells his parents that he did not complete his project on time because of the after-school activities his parents signed him up for, when the child starts looking to lay blame for academic failures, a burnout is imminent.
No Time for Socialization
Normally, students will find time to enjoy the company of their friends either after school and extracurricular activities or during weekends. However, a student who has too much academic workload will begin to beg off from doing relaxation activities with friends such as going to each other's homes, going to the mall, playing e-games, or even just going out for a bite to eat at their favorite fast food place. If the student is uptight and begins turning down social invitations, you can bet the academic workload is bearing down on the student, causing him to sacrifice his R&R period to make sure that his academics are always excellent.
Asking for Academic Help
The surest sign of a student who is near the breaking point of his academic skills is when he tells his parents that he is falling behind in class because there is a certain topic he cannot learn. This is something that normally happens in the Math and Science classes. When a student tells his parents he needs tutoring, or he comes home with a failing grade even though his parents know that applies himself as best as he can to his academics, then the student has burned out. Failing in class doesn't mean the child is stupid. It means he cannot cope with his academic workload any longer. It becomes difficult for him to learn his lessons because of the number of homework or projects he needs to complete during the week. Thus, taking away from the theoretical learning process he also needs to additionally accomplish at home.
Put it this way, if the child says he is physically incapable of doing any more schoolwork, he's burned out.
Constantly Falling
Child psychologists have warned parents over the years that too much homework causes physical manifestations of illness. Physical pain and psychosomatic illnesses in the youth have been traced to the amount of academic workload that a child has in his life.
It is not uncommon for students to experience fatigue even after having completed 8 or more hours of sleep. They wake up exhausted and dreading the start of the school day. Oftentimes getting sick by throwing up of having migraines due to their academic worries.
While the issue of academic excellence is something that parents will always worry about. Relaxing the academic and extra-curricular activities of the child will help keep student burnout at bay. Parents will do best to help the child balance academic excellence with their physical and mental well-being. After all, having an overachiever for a child will mean nothing if the child is constantly sick or begins to reject going to school or the learning process in general. That could result in the child dropping out of school altogether instead. Remember, less academic and extra-curricular pressure on a child means a happier child.
This is not to say that homework is bad for a child. In my next article, I shall discuss the benefits offered by doing a reasonable amount of homework in terms of the development of a student.
Dreading School Days
When a student feels like he is never prepared enough for the upcoming school day and is observed to be constantly cramming schoolwork into the weekend when he should be resting, this is a sure sign of burnout.
Some students show physical manifestations of this burnout by falling asleep at the dining table, dozing off during family movie night, and taking constant powernaps while working on his homework. Once the morning comes, some parents are surprised to see the student already at work at the computer, working on left over homework. Even as they walk out the door to take the child to school, the child often declares, "I really hate school days..."
Time is Never Enough
There may be times when a child takes a nap after school, during the trip to his extra-curricular activity and the next one after that and the next one...Then slowly, the child will begin asking his parents if he can stop doing one or two activities after school. Just so he can catch up on schoolwork and projects.While extra-curricular activities help the child develop other physical and mental faculties, as well as help them grow independently and learn the meaning of team work, when their schoolwork becomes so much that they find they need to sacrifice activities they enjoy doing for the sake of academics, then something is wrong. If a child tells his parents that he did not complete his project on time because of the after-school activities his parents signed him up for, when the child starts looking to lay blame for academic failures, a burnout is imminent.
No Time for Socialization
Normally, students will find time to enjoy the company of their friends either after school and extracurricular activities or during weekends. However, a student who has too much academic workload will begin to beg off from doing relaxation activities with friends such as going to each other's homes, going to the mall, playing e-games, or even just going out for a bite to eat at their favorite fast food place. If the student is uptight and begins turning down social invitations, you can bet the academic workload is bearing down on the student, causing him to sacrifice his R&R period to make sure that his academics are always excellent.
Asking for Academic Help
The surest sign of a student who is near the breaking point of his academic skills is when he tells his parents that he is falling behind in class because there is a certain topic he cannot learn. This is something that normally happens in the Math and Science classes. When a student tells his parents he needs tutoring, or he comes home with a failing grade even though his parents know that applies himself as best as he can to his academics, then the student has burned out. Failing in class doesn't mean the child is stupid. It means he cannot cope with his academic workload any longer. It becomes difficult for him to learn his lessons because of the number of homework or projects he needs to complete during the week. Thus, taking away from the theoretical learning process he also needs to additionally accomplish at home.
Put it this way, if the child says he is physically incapable of doing any more schoolwork, he's burned out.
Constantly Falling
Child psychologists have warned parents over the years that too much homework causes physical manifestations of illness. Physical pain and psychosomatic illnesses in the youth have been traced to the amount of academic workload that a child has in his life.
It is not uncommon for students to experience fatigue even after having completed 8 or more hours of sleep. They wake up exhausted and dreading the start of the school day. Oftentimes getting sick by throwing up of having migraines due to their academic worries.
While the issue of academic excellence is something that parents will always worry about. Relaxing the academic and extra-curricular activities of the child will help keep student burnout at bay. Parents will do best to help the child balance academic excellence with their physical and mental well-being. After all, having an overachiever for a child will mean nothing if the child is constantly sick or begins to reject going to school or the learning process in general. That could result in the child dropping out of school altogether instead. Remember, less academic and extra-curricular pressure on a child means a happier child.
This is not to say that homework is bad for a child. In my next article, I shall discuss the benefits offered by doing a reasonable amount of homework in terms of the development of a student.