Looking at the bottom right corner of the laptop and realizing it’s 1:30 a.m. depresses you, yet you’re unable to lay your head upon that heavenly pillow. You know it is late when Jimmy Fallon has been off for an hour, but you have to finish your essay. Is this the lifestyle high school students should have?

Often times, teachers blame students’ being stressed on their lack of concentration and time management. In turn, students blame the teachers without consideration to their efforts. But rather than spreading out blame, a better understanding and coordination between students and teachers needs to be established in order to ease the burden placed on students.

School is the equivalent to a job, and just as some teachers do not like to take their work home with them, neither do students. Plus, on top of that, some students stay after school for clubs or sports, or even go to an actual job. There simply isn’t time for two hours worth of work per class each night.

According to the American Psychological Association, school is the number one source of stress for teenagers who tend to commonly experience both emotional and physical symptoms of stress.

We are currently in the middle of the school year, right in the thick of things. Of course teachers want to get through as much material as possible, but purposely piling on work is not an efficient way to teach. This only serves to stress out students who have the same amount of work coming at them from as many as seven different directions, not including extracurriculars, work, and family.

For one, teachers should not overlap major projects or assignments within the same time frame. If they happen to overlap, but one is spread out over a much longer period of time that is fine. If the teacher wishes for the student to do an above decent job on both, they need to be reasonable. Expecting a student to read 100 pages a week while also working on a term paper, along with work from other classes is a little much.

We realize that asking teachers to space out assignments seems only like a way to cover less material. This is not the case. If in order to cover enough material and remain competitive among other schools teachers must overlap assignments, they should then relieve the pressure on students and not assign as much. While grades are significant, they are not the final determinant of success and comprehension of material, and students can learn just as much without going through the stress of doing graded work for each topic.

Teachers also need to be realistic and realize that, to students, their class may not come first. Each students has either six or seven teachers who are all expecting full dedication. To be fully dedicated to seven classes at one time is asking students to spread themselves too thin, especially if they wish to be involved in other activities.

While most teachers have made a point to always be available for extra help, all teachers should dedicate a time before or after school when students can come for help if they are worried about a lesson or an upcoming quiz or test.

Some teachers do a good job of being there for assistance and extra help for their students, but they are under a good deal of stress themselves. For example, many teachers have five sections and has over 100 students. Grading all of those assignments and planning all of those lessons can’t be a walk in the park.

Though it may seem like a lot to ask for, if a class is doesn’t have many students or has only one or two sections, the teacher should consult with the students about deadlines before assigning them. That way, since the students know their schedules better and know when time would be most available, the deadline would be less of a surprise and less of a scary, overwhelming day in the back of students’ minds.

Stress is in everyone’s life, but coping with it is different for every person. People’s response is to either time manage, to not procrastinate, or put off things and let them pile up.

Different ways of coping according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) include keeping a planner with upcoming events organized, exercises to relieve stress and get rid of that energy, and seeking extra help from specialists who assist in stress management and relief.

Stress can stem from all sorts of things, but the simple fact of being at a college preparatory school and having the workload from several AP classes and added extra curricular activities can really wear you down.

Every once in a while you are going to have two tests on one day, but it is excessive and adds an unnecessary amount of anxiety to have this happen on a regular basis. Adding into the equation a sports or theater practice, having to worry about studying for two tests after getting home from extracurriculars is just too much.

All students and teachers go through some sort of stress. Teachers want to get in all the material at a certain time and they want to be able to enjoy their weekends. Students want to do well in school, but don’t want to stay up past midnight the majority of the week. There is never a perfect balance, but a happy medium is really what is needed.