Temporary anxiety can often surface before the first day of school. Sometimes, that can help kids get in the right mindset for a big day. But when anxiety becomes a constant feature of children’s and teenagers’ days, that stress doesn’t switch off when they leave the classroom or finish an exam. It can become the body’s normal, staying with learners long after graduation.

I teach biology and neuroscience to undergraduates, and I believe that the way we educate our children – prioritizing performance and grades over curiosity and well-being – is producing a society full of anxiety-ridden adults.

A recent survey of over 84,000 college students found that one-third of them self-reported moderate or severe anxiety, and roughly the same share self-reported depression.

I’ve seen this unfold in ways I am only just starting to understand. A few years ago, one of my neuroscience students, whom I will call Hannah to protect her privacy, described how she experienced high school only as a way to get a scholarship to attend college. She became, in her words, a “complete robot.”

“I developed extreme anxiety; it like completely took over my life,” she said. “There was no excitement to learn.”

Learning can be fun, but isn’t always

Learning, as experienced by young children, is normally very rewarding. When organic, it is delightful, immersive, timeless and fun.

Curiosity itself triggers a dopamine response in children’s brains. Researchers describe it as a “curiosity loop,” in which the brain predicts something, runs into something new or unexpected, releases dopamine, and the child is hooked, chasing the answer because it feels good to find it.

As kids grow, they take on more homework and more exams, and have more evaluation tied to specific benchmarks, like grades, which can inadvertently cut off the curiosity........

© The Conversation