Stress is considered a normal part of school, but at Silver Creek High School, academic competition is one of the causes of stress for students according to both staff and students. School competition is when students compete academically against themselves or other students and it has been known to affect the mental health of some students within Silver Creek for many years.

Obtaining a high grade point average (GPA), being the student who is top of the class, getting A’s, and getting into competitive colleges, are all ways that some Silver Creek students are academically competing. While some competition might be good, there is some competition that might harm the mental health of a student.

“There’s this race to the top because there’s a lot of students who are very academic minded and it can create this competitive stress among students,” Silver Creek Interventionist, Kristi Ehle-Parker, said.

School competition stems from many classes; however, the most noticed competition is coming from the Advanced Placement (AP) classes. Some students feel a pressure to join an AP course because their friends might be in that class and they want to show that they can achieve the same satisfaction too. Students also feel pressure to join AP classes because they might be facing pressure from their parents or peers about joining higher level classes.

“Kids will strive to push themselves into AP classes for things they are not really interested in just because their friends are taking a bunch of AP classes,” Silver Creek Senior, Mia Frazier, said.

Some competition can push students to try harder and do better in school. However, within Silver Creek there have been students who have cheated to possibly receive the better grades or look better on their tests or exams from the pressure and stress. A reason could be that they did not do their homework or they were pressuring themselves to get an A.

“Students will cheat to find a good grade in order to get ahead of other students,” Silver Creek English teacher, Kaelyn Vargo, says. “[Students] think that having the A is most important, and so for [some students], they’re going to cheat.”

Students can also be competing because of the grade involved and not for the knowledge aspect. Students may not be focused on the topic they are learning about, the book they might be reading for English class or even the videos they could watch in class.

“I think with students, they’re very competitive with quiz scores or test scores, and it’s solely for the fact of the grade and not for the incentive to learn,” Vargo said.

Overall, anxiety and depression may also be stemming from the competitive environment at Silver Creek. The stress of staying caught up and getting good grades may cause anxiety. Similarly, if a student were to do poorly on an assignment or test, it may cause them to doubt and talk poorly about themselves, leaving them with depressive thoughts. This can happen when a student competes with themself and applies too much pressure on themself.

“One of my friends [didn’t] do [well] on her AP test and she just felt so bad about herself,” Frazier said. “It’s a specific person that gets stressed out from the AP classes and then with that stress, it can sometimes cause [that person] to go deeper into depression and anxiety.”

The competition within Silver Creek High School may be noticed in different forms and it causes mental stress issues for students. Although, there are some solutions that may help students push past the competition and stress.

One of those solutions could be for students to only take AP or general classes that they are interested in and not for the competition. Another solution could be for a student to account for the fact that they might not be alone.

“No matter what, in [an] AP class, there’s going to be someone else who’s in the same boat as you,” Frazier said. “If you have a D, you’re not the only person, [and] if you have an A, you’re also not the only person.”

The competition might not always just be about the good grades, it could also be about a higher GPA that is above a 4.0. Some students might work to achieve being top of their class and some focus on their GPA to do so. Since good grades contribute to a good or higher GPA, students might feel more pressure to achieve the best grades to earn a higher GPA.

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you are ranked top ten in your class [and it] doesn’t matter if you have a 4.1 versus a 4.0 [GPA],” Ehle-Parker said.

Vargo hopes that the grading system will change in the future leading to a more standards-based grading system. She believes that this might reduce the amount of competition within Silver Creek and it could help students focus on what they are learning rather than what grade they receive.

Since Silver Creek’s grading system might not change for a long time, another thought that students can keep in mine is the idea that we are all moving forward, whether that be towards something similar or something different.

“We are all running a race and we’re all on a different track and we all have a different finish line,” Vargo says.