Los Altos High culture of stress: Half can't sleep; most say they're burned out

Source: Mountain View (Calif.) Voice

Students at Los Altos High School are some of the highest-achieving in the nation. And while most will go on to attend a junior college or four-year university, a survey of students taken by fellow students last spring indicates that success has a price: too much stress.

The survey was developed by Girls for Change, a socially minded student group that took on the issue of student stress last school year.

... In partnership with Stanford University, the group put out a survey to 1,400 students asking about their feelings on their school and home experiences, extracurricular and paid activities, school culture, stress and how they felt about the future.

Nearly half of the students said they have regular difficulty sleeping. Nearly a third reported sometimes cheating in school, while 57 percent said they felt burned out often or even daily. Over 40 percent reported participating in extracurricular activities because it looked good on a college application.

"It validated what we expected," Prothro said, adding that counselors have seen increasing numbers of students who "hit the wall" or become physically ill from stress.

Read more: http://www.mv-voice.com/news/show_story.php?id=2711

It's steeped in the stuff. And when you can no longer hack it, you're off the boat.

How acheivy do you really got to be in life to be happy? How many of those nerds get laid on a regular basis?

Pretty much a non-story.

time on fucking Facebook and more time...you know...sleeping. (Yeah...mother of high school student here.)