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Uploaded: Wednesday, January 23, 2013, 11:08 AM                                             

Gunn to host teen wellness panel tonight
'Sound Minds, Sound Bodies' is theme for expert panel on mental health, sleep, mindfulness

Posted by Parent, a member of the Palo Alto High School community, on Jan 23, 2013 at 1:50 pm

I hope some mention is made of getting our teens to have some fun for no reason other than to have fun.

I have seen so many teens unable to truly unwind and have fun. Too many times their only out of school activities are because they will look good on college applications, or because they are beneficial in some way or other. It is time we put back activities into our young people's lives that are not designed to be challenging or character building, but instead just designed to be fun. Sports, music, drama, etc. are all good things to do, but because of the expectations of doing well and outshining each other, they have long lost their fun factor.

Putting some fun back in the lives of teens could be something that makes their lives worth the effort today, rather than something for the future that they feel is still a long way ahead.

Posted by another parent, a member of the Palo Alto High School community, on Jan 23, 2013 at 3:31 pm

Parent,

"Sports, music, drama, etc. are all good things to do, but because of the expectations of doing well and outshining each other, they have long lost their fun factor."

You're absolutely right. I think EVERYTHING has turned into a competition.

It's embarrassing at this point.

Posted by musical, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on Jan 23, 2013 at 4:28 pm

Is it possible to have fun while there's constant awareness that others are getting ahead? Like taking a break in the middle of a marathon and watching everybody trotting on past you. Every minute of downtime is a detriment to one's future. The only rational approach is to redefine success, as having some fun and being happy rather than being miserable accumulating a string of meaningless accomplishments. Life requires balance, after all. Unfortunately those on the fast track look pretty happy when they get admitted to the Ivies and will no doubt have plenty of fun there.

I don't want to be a troll here, but what is the answer to all this competition? As for myself, it's all far behind me now, and I don't particularly regret not winning the Nobel Prize or being President of the United States.

Posted by Voice of Experience, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jan 23, 2013 at 4:53 pm

I hope some mention is made [portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff] of the importance of friends, after school activities, recreation, and downtime. I also hope that the importance of the "whole child" is also explained to all parents and teens.

We are getting a lot of graduates who are NOT well-rounded!

Posted by anotherparent, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Jan 24, 2013 at 3:11 pm

All great comments so far. PA kids seem to be taking after their parents in thinking that your status is the most important thing in life. It is not. It can certainly help to get into a great school to get into a great job. But isn't the actual education and personal development even more important than what your degree and job are? Isn't it what you actually ACCOMPLISH that matters? And yes, we should enjoy life as well as live it.

Posted by Messaging and PR, a resident of the Community Center neighborhood, on Jan 26, 2013 at 1:40 pm

God save us from one more panel on how stressed our kids are while the district makes no changes to actually reduce stress. Sadly our board does not have any idea that hosting a panel is not actually an action and this meaningless exercise will head up the list of achievements against their inaptly named "focus" goals for this year.