In the Netherlands, a school banned parents from viewing their children’s grades on an app for a term to reduce student stress.
The Guardian reports about this.
It was decided to conduct such an experiment after a study showed that sharing each result puts additional pressure on students. Stijn Eyttenbogard, an economics teacher at the school, surveyed 500 students and found that when parents regularly checked the app, children rated their stress 2.7 out of five. Those whose parents didn’t check the app regularly had a stress level of two.
“In my opinion, this pressure on students to succeed is a modern thing. When I was at school there was a report four times a year, but otherwise you could tell your parents when and what you wanted. Now, though, parents can get a notification on their phone, “Hey, your kid has a new result,” and the kid comes home and the parents are already there ready to talk. It’s horrible,” he said.
To carry out the experiment, 95% of the parents agreed. Geert Leuschelder, an educator with 40 years of experience, believes that in the Dutch school system, dissatisfaction with grades prevails over the development of life skills such as empathy and flexibility.
He says the Montessori method is about giving students “responsibility and the right to make the choices they make in their learning”: “Parents looking over students’ shoulders only causes stress. In our educational system, we always say, “You have the right to make mistakes. That’s how you learn”
