Look around in a high school. Though other factors among the students may very well differ, each of them has a backpack, purse, or other type of pouch in which to carry their school materials.

Speaking from personal experience, that backpack is extremely heavy- both metaphorically and literally. The amount of binders, paper, textbooks, and other assorted tools students must lug around is startlingly high. The amount of work, however, that is upon the plate of each student converts them almost into a beast of burden.

Projects, papers, exams and quizzes heavy the mind of someone still deemed too young to leave a classroom without a hall pass. Depending on a student's specific circumstances, they may also be troubled by thoughts of their job(s)- or lack thereof- college, and struggles which generally plague the teenage years.

This is not to say that a certain level of challenge isn't beneficial- it is. Students should absolutely be encountered with new, trying material. It will expand the potential and mind of each individual, pushing them to consider and understand new, real things in the world around them.

However, when students are having anxious breakdowns, developing depression, or acquiring mental disorders due to (or amplified by) their academic life, the system is failing.

We are not beasts of burden. We are a generation wrought with potential, being dealt a hand with which it is more than improbable to win. This has been a WorldCheck.