Across the country, kids are busy, stressed and sleep deprived.
Between homework, tests and extracurriculars — not to mention college applications for high schoolers — students are “super busy both in and out of school,” says Denise Pope, Ph.D., a senior lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education and co-founder of Challenge Success, which provides information and conducts research around best practices in areas such as assessment and school schedule.
“We surveyed over 150 schools across the U.S.,” Pope said in a recent interview. “We asked (kids) how many hours of homework they’re doing a night — not counting social media or procrastination — and asked about weekends and extracurriculars, and then asked them to self report their sleep.
“Their average amount of sleep started with the number six,” Pope continued. “Some experts say you need at least nine hours at the high school level. Nobody would say six (hours of sleep is sufficient).”
Pope has observed this issue internationally as well.
“We used to have to convince people this was a problem, but we don’t have to anymore,” she said.
Recognizing youth stress is a prevalent issue here in Pleasanton, the city in partnership with PUSD, PPIE and the Pleasanton PTA Council has invited Pope to serve as the keynote speaker at next weekend’s second annual Parenting Forum, part of the city’s free Community Education Series.
“(Challenge Success’) message is promoting healthy, happy kids and they want to reduce stress in children,” said city of Pleasanton community services manager Andrea McGovern. “The city is in line with their message and the school district as well as the PTA.”
She added, “We meet once a year with our youth commission to talk about topics that need to be addressed. One of the top priorities was reducing student stress, so all those things led us to going with Challenge Success (for the forum).”
Besides her work with Challenge Success and as a Stanford lecturer, Pope is also the author of “Doing School” and co-author of “Overloaded and Underprepared,” the theme of this year’s forum.
The book’s premise is that “our increasingly fast-paced world is interfering with sound educational practices and harming kids both physically and mentally.” It offers information and strategies for teachers, administrators and parents to make changes at school and at home to “create a more balanced and academically fulfilling life for kids.”
Pope says the notion that students are “overloaded” speaks to how busy their schedules can be, and the “underprepared” point comes from “the fact that they’re doing all this work but don’t find it meaningful or useful.”
“We’re seeing from colleges that (some) kids in AP classes are not retaining the information, and CEOs are telling us kids coming out of even these top-tier schools are not prepared with what we call 21st century skills,” she said.
Pope’s keynote will touch on some of those strategies for parents of kindergarteners through high school seniors while also presenting supporting data from surveys of youth.
“There’s a lot that families and kids can do immediately and there are some things that are more long-term that schools should probably consider because we’re all in this together,” Pope said. “In our society right now it’s kind of a thing to be busy, and they take it as a good thing but at some point there are a lot of health issues associated with lack of sleep and stress, and that goes all the way up through adults.”
After the keynote, parents and educators will take part in breakout sessions facilitated by PUSD staff. Sessions include “Raising healthy, happy kids” — which will focus on finding balance in playtime, downtime and family time, McGovern says — and “Choosing the right fit college,” among others.
“It’s really quite positive that Pleasanton the city is taking on this initiative,” Pope said. “This is basically saying as a city, parent education and child wellbeing is a priority for us, and that’s great.”
Overloaded and Underprepared
What: second annual parenting forum
Who: Keynote speaker Denise Pope
When: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Feb. 3
Where: Harvest Park Middle School, 4900 Valley Ave.
To attend: Registration is free; visit pleasantonfun.com and search for course 6698.
