How do students at ISB deal with the rigorous academic schedules with extracurriculars, sports, and social life? By:Emily WIlls

(Goldman, June 11, 2020)

ISB says that they want their students to have a balanced lifestyle, however, is that possible considering the amount of work they do and the expectation that the school environment has on them?

Being a student-athlete comes with being a well-organized person. Being committed to your schoolwork as well as accommodating the goals of your sports and extracurricular activities. As well as a lack of sleep, and prioritizing your schoolwork before your sports, but you also have to be successful in this process.

ISB always talks about how schoolwork comes first. But student-athletes lack credit for the amount of time and effort they put into their schoolwork as well as things that they do outside of school. The amount of training is 10+ hours a week on top of the massive amounts of schoolwork, and summatives that they have.

Being able to prioritize schoolwork and extracurriculars takes time. Molly Cohen says, “I struggled for a very long time to keep my schedule under control. I complete my schoolwork whenever I have free time and when I'm not participating in sports. Since school usually comes first, it is unavoidable that I won't get enough sleep, but that doesn't mean I don't have goals for my extracurricular activities. I do think that I have a ton of schoolwork, and having to manage it all at once can be really difficult.”

American Academy of Sleep Medicine has recommended that teenagers 13-18 years old should be getting at least 8-10 hours of sleep per night(CDC). But Mena says, “Personal I lack sleep every night, I usually get 5-7 hours of sleep a day. I either have morning practice or I have to stay up very late and make sure I’m prepared for the next day at school. I’m only a sophomore and the schoolwork is just going to keep getting heavier and heavier.”

But the other thing is coaches, why aren't they more reasonable about kids skipping practice to work on school work if ISB's whole thing is they want students to have a balanced, successful life?

Every student at ISB has goals, and being able to manage your workload is a life skill that everyone should possess. If ISB, Thailand's top-ranked school, weren't challenging, students wouldn't be getting the whole educational experience. Mrs. Leoni says, "Every child experiences stress, and it can feel overwhelming at times. However, if stress and concern weren't a part of life, everyone would be successful and have nothing to worry about if they tried new things in everything they attempted.”

The whole thing behind this is how students struggle on a daily basis with sleep, academics, sports, and other extracurricular activities, and if anything they gets credit for just their sports but nobody gives attention to the academic side of these athletes and if anything,

“Coaches should be more reasonable and understanding of the workload, and realize that student-athletes deal with so much and undergo a ton of stress and need more recognition of what they do on a daily basis, said Mena.”