Stress and the Classroom

The New York Times has an article here describing research that shows that giving workers more breaks, in the long run, makes workers more productive because it reduces their levels of stress.  In the comments section, a few posters mentioned that students are also under too much stress, because of all the testing:

Yes, students are under too much stress. Look at the day of teachers, as well. The cutting of music and the arts not only hurts students but takes away what may have been the only unscheduled time for elementary school teachers as well. 

And junior high and high school teachers typically run to five different classes a day (often of thirty students or more), then a duty period, a twenty minute lunch, and a forty minute “ planning” period, when they are usually trying to catch up on e-mail and maybe, if they are lucky, get a few papers graded. Most of the grading and planning gets done at night.

After teaching for 37 years I sold real estate for awhile. Colleagues griped about how busy they were—I just stared at them. Hey, I could sit and have a cup of tea, use the restroom, chat for a few minutes with another realtor—bliss!