Tuesday, November 3, 2009

It’s decision time

The year is ending… And most students who are finishing high school want to enter a college. In the USA, some universities and colleges use tests like SAT, ACT and GRE. Otherwise, many colleges have rejected these standardized tests; they prefer to evaluate students through other means, such as the grades the student received in a previous school.
In Brazil, the entrance examination is known as Vestibular, each college usually has its own test. The government wants to unify this, with ENEM, the student wouldn’t need to make registration in several college tests.
But, are we, teenagers, prepared to face all this pressure? I don’t think so. A research made by Federal University of Santa Catarina in 2003, with 754 teenagers - vestibulandos and pré-vestibulandos (how students who will take vestibular are called) brought out that 43% of them showed stress symptoms. Young people with stress have been related in different places, like the USA., Turkey, Pakistan, Japan, Sweden, France and South Africa. Some consequences are: low self-esteem, eating disorders, clinical depression, homicide, suicide, antisocial behavior, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia and drug abuse.

All these disorders can be avoided with parents' support, giving theirs sons and/or daughters affection and safety. The parents can’t force a child to become an adult of a sudden. Each thing has its time.
As Jim Morrison would say “Time to live / Time to lie / Time to laugh / Time to die / Take it easy, baby / Take it as it comes”.

F.

8 comments:

  1. "...And these children that you spit on.
    As they try to change their worlds are
    immune to your consultations. They're
    quite aware of what they're going through..."
    Bowie,David.

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  2. This problems are, for sure, a consequence of how parents (and society in general) put emphasis on such an important period of our life. It is very hard, indeed, but we all survive to sing David Bowie and many other dudes. And please, don't blow your heads for it. Work will demand much more hehehe

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  3. Pressure, Vestibular, pressure, parents, pressure, friends...
    That's life, believe it or not! But be sure that everything we do, meaning our best, comes back to us in the future. So, enjoy the pressure and laugh at it later... Because then you will be able to say that...
    “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die discover that I had not lived.” (Henry David Thoreau)
    with no regret at all...
    KEEP ON THE GREAT WORK!!!

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  4. Great post, Fabrício! Instead of using the
    tradicional 'vestibular', I think it would be
    better to evaluate the students by their grades in school. 'ENEM' will only increase the pressure on young people because only one test will decide the students' future.
    I don't know if this is the best way to examine our knowledge...

    good post =) haushahsa

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  5. everybody using google translator to coment!!

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  6. In my opinion,this way of life(I mean,be a yuppie) is totaly against the Thoreau's words.
    But,nevermind...


    ps:Unfortunately,this is our world,and its TOO hard to do greats changes.(But not impossible)So...

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  7. Surely evaluating someone through just ONE test is not fair. But considering the grades students get during high school wouldn't be so fair either because of the disparity between public and private school systems and levels...
    However, I hope the universities and colleges in Brazil find a way to promote better education because THAT'S what is really missing...

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