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South Bay Accent - Feb/Mar 2015

TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK tk tK TK TK Anxiety levels are up for kids surrounded by high expectations from all quarters. By Susan Kerr stress and the student Kyle is a kid who seemed to have it all: easy-going but with top grades, a stable family lovingly presided over by successful Silicon Valley parents who met at Princeton, and a natural aptitude for sports. Slowly at first, and then with an astonishingly quick thud, this young, carefully curated world fell apart. ¶ In eighth grade—just when Kyle was applying to high school—the teen started complaining about a hand injury and began missing basketball practice. Tests failed to pinpoint any specific problem, which frustrated mom, Chelsea, since clearly something was wrong. “Kyle was in pain,” Chelsea recalls. “So when one doctor suggested that maybe he should see a counselor, I insisted instead that Kyle get another scan.” ¶ Things improved after the teen got into his top-choice high school. Then one day, during a freshman-year exam, Kyle got up, walked out of the classroom, wandered off campus and eventually made it home hours later. “I can’t say why I did it,” he says. “I just felt as if I couldn’t stand being in that room for one second longer.” ¶ Welcome to the world of adolescent academic anxiety. » February/March 2015 61


South Bay Accent - Feb/Mar 2015
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