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Apathy & Anxiety

Liz Stapp
Mar 76 min read

A Modern Paradox Among Today's Teens
Image is AI-Generated
Image is AI-Generated
It’s hard to ignore what’s happening with our kids today. We constantly hear about rising anxiety and depression rates among teenagers. At the same time, teachers and parents are dealing with a completely different crisis:  disengagement. 

Some kids are drowning in stress, trying to keep up with relentless expectations. Others have mentally checked out, seeing no reason to participate at all.  How can both of these things be true at the same time?

Because they’re two sides of the same problem.

For years, we’ve been funneling students through a rigid, one-size-fits-all system that defines success as straight A’s, elite college acceptances, and an increasingly narrow view of achievement. We see kids burning themselves out trying to meet impossible standards. Next to them are kids who have already given up trying, realizing they’ll never fit that mold. 

The good news is that this can change.

There are myriad ways to live a life of meaning and attain personal success. Getting straight As and perfect ACT scores is a guarantee of neither. So, we don’t need to add more pressure on kids. What we do need is to give students real choices, real, practical life skills, and real reasons to be engaged in their education.

This is why the WW Reynolds Foundation exists. Our goal is to expand engaging educational opportunities and empower young people to pursue a life of meaning.

This starts by making sure school isn’t just something kids "get through.” School should be preparing them for a future they can get excited about.

The Numbers Paint a Clear Picture
If you’ve been paying attention, none of this will surprise you. But the numbers make it even clearer.

Teen mental health is still in crisis, but there’s a bit of good news:
  • In 2021, 42% of high school students said they felt persistently sad or hopeless (CDC).
  • That number dropped slightly to 40% in 2023—still way too high, but at least moving in the right direction.

Some other signs of improvement:
  • Among female students, feelings of sadness and hopelessness fell from 57% to 53%, and the percentage who seriously considered suicide dropped from 30% to 27%.
  • Hispanic and Black students saw small but meaningful improvements in key mental health indicators.

But here’s the problem:
  • More students feel unsafe at school or on the way there. The number of kids skipping school because of safety concerns jumped from 9% to 13%.
  • Reports of students being threatened or injured with a weapon at school increased from 7% to 9%.
  • Bullying rates have climbed from 15% to 19%.

If students don’t feel safe in school, small improvements in mental health mean little. Kids can’t be engaged if they don’t feel safe enough to go to school each day. 

It’s not just mental health that’s suffering. Some kids are checking out of school completely. Student engagement has hit rock bottom:
  • 52% of high school students say they feel "chronically disengaged" in school (Gallup).
  • Less than 40% believe what they’re learning has any real-world relevance (Education Next).
  • Chronic absenteeism has doubled since the pandemic—1 in 4 students is missing so much school they’re at risk of failing (Brookings Institution).

Gallup’s research provides even deeper insights:
  • Nearly half of students surveyed (47%) say they feel engaged in school, but 29% are not engaged, and 24% are actively disengaged.
  • Engagement starts strong in elementary school (74% of fifth graders say they’re engaged), but drops drastically by high school—only one-third of high school students say they’re engaged.

So, we’ve got kids losing sleep over test scores sitting next to kids who don’t even bother to show up.

It’s not a coincidence. This is the same crisis, playing out in different ways. And one of the biggest culprits?  We’ve killed curiosity.

School Used to Be About Learning. Now It’s About Compliance.
Ever been in a kindergarten classroom? Those kids are full of questions. They want to know everything. Why is the sky blue? How do airplanes fly? What happens if I mix all the colors together? By high school? Silence.

The research backs it up:
  • Kindergarteners ask 100+ questions a day (Right Question Institute).
  • Middle schoolers? Maybe 2-5 per class (Berger, 2014).
  • By high school? Many students go entire class periods without asking a single thing (Make Just One Change, Rothstein & Santana).

What happened?

Over time, school stopped being about discovery and started being about compliance. Instead of encouraging kids to explore, we drill them with test prep, rigid grading rubrics, and college-or-bust messaging.

For high-achievers, this leads to crushing stress. They feel enormous pressure to perform.
For kids who don’t see themselves fitting into the system? They check out entirely. Either way, curiosity dies, and with it, motivation.

The Fix? Give ALL Kids a Reason to Care.
At WW Reynolds Foundation, we believe in expanding educational opportunities so every student has a real shot at success. Not every kid can get straight As and perfect scores. Most cannot. That’s why we support programs that make learning relevant again for all students. We also support programs–like the ones below– that promote alternate learning and career paths.

1. Mike Rowe Works: Bringing Back the Trades
  • The U.S. has 11 million unfilled skilled labor jobs (Bureau of Labor Statistics), yet most schools barely mention these career paths. Trades like construction, electrical work, and welding offer high pay, job security, and NO student debt.
  • What Mike Rowe Works is Doing:
    • Work Ethic Scholarships – Helping students fund trade school programs.
    • Industry Partnerships – Connecting trade school grads with employers.
    • National Awareness Campaigns – Challenging the stigma around blue-collar jobs.

2. Junior Achievement: Teaching Financial Literacy That Actually Matters
  • As of 2024, only 26.3% of U.S. public high school students are required to take a personal finance course before graduation (Next Gen Personal Finance).
  • What Junior Achievement is Doing:
    • Financial Literacy Education – Teaching budgeting, credit, and investing.
    • Entrepreneurship Programs – Giving students hands-on business experience.
    • Stock Market Challenge – Helping kids learn investing through gamified programs.

3. Education for Democracy: Reintroducing Civics and Community Engagement
  • A 2018 Brown University study found that less than 25% of U.S. high school seniors scored proficient in civics.
  • How Schools Can Fix This:
    • Require civics courses that go beyond memorization. Teach students how policies impact them and how to take action.
    • Connect students to local government. Require students to attend city council meetings and engage in policymaking.
    • Make community service a graduation requirement. Students should log 50+ hours of hands-on civic engagement.

Final Thoughts: It’s Time to Rethink Education
For too long, we’ve treated school like a pressure cooker or a checklist. No wonder kids are either burning out or tuning out.  But we can fix this. If we expand what success looks like, make learning relevant again, and give students real choices, real skills, and real purpose, we can turn things around.

And that’s exactly what we’re doing at WW Reynolds Foundation. We fund programs that give kids not just an education, but a future they can believe in.


Works Cited & Referenced

 
 
 

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