Name: Peerun Bibi Ameerah

Id: 0313939

Module: English 1

Session: April 2013

In some countries young people have little leisure time and are under a lot of pressure

to work hard in their studies. What do you think are the causes and effects of this

condition? Plan your response, and then write a cause and effect essay.

Young people, little leisure time

The youngsters of today’s generation are often taken away from their leisure time

in order to achieve higher in their academic performance. A person needs to take time

away from his daily usual activities and place such as school, workplace, and

housework and so on. In consequence, the human mind and body can find peace by

taking some leisure time which helps to relax, a sense of self and de-stressed. Leisure

time activities include games, sports, reading, cultural events, entertainment and

community service. Leisure activities are very important as it bring a flow of positive

energy and help to refresh the mind. Unfortunately, nowadays young people do not

enjoy as much as needed their leisure time. They tend to focus more on their academic

obligations and neglect their supposed-to-be leisure time. Study pressure is inflected on

students by their parents or educational body. A proper education system is required for

students to aim higher by avoiding severe competition. Today’s students are faces with

academics and extracurricular demands, private tuition and health problems.

School-age children feel stressed about academic and extracurricular demands,

according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Some

education system requires a student to attend school for eight hours. Inside the walls of

an educational institution, students face a great amount of pressure in disguise. They

have to be constantly focused on classes and worry about their grades. The level of

competition is very high which make young people to always want to reach perfection

before their fellow classmates. In order to do so, students are continuously working hard

at school but also after those eight hours spent at school they head home for more

workload. As soon as they reach home, they have to complete their homework, work on

assignment and memorize notes. By the time they finish all of these it is already bed

time and the following day will be alike. The high competitions that exist among

youngsters in the academic world make them forget that they should relax a while.

Today’s youngsters believe that, to have a good and comfortable life in the future, they

need to always try harder and sometime beyond their own limit. The free time that they

could have spent to watch a movie, do sports or their favorite past time, is on the

contrary spent on studying.

During the past few years, another factor that causes young people to spend less

time on leisure activities is private tuition. For many students, school is a constant

struggle to deal with too many issues simultaneously. Being surrounded by top

achievers and also being pressurized by parents to score A’s, some students might lose

their self confidence of whether to be able to meet the criteria of a successful person. In

order to make their parents proud, youngsters attend private tuition after school hours

and even on weekends instead of having some quality time by taking a break from

academic matters. Moreover, the amount of homework and project work is doubled. The

educational curriculum usually comprises of extracurricular activities such as sports

games, such as football, volleyball and music classes. But unfortunately even for such

activities students are assessed and are expected to do their best instead of having fun

and relaxing. For example, the winning team in a volleyball match will be rewarded by

higher marks than the other team. A game which could have been a friendly match is

viewed as a competition. Those who did not play well will tend to try harder and harder

to improve their skills but not positively for their own passion. It is mostly to be better

than others in a competitive way.

A lack of leisure time and activities in a young person’s life may result in a

negative manner. Less parent interaction and imbalanced way of living, having little or

no time for leisure activities, are also said to be the culprits for mental disorders (Times

Online Sdn. Bhd., 2012). Always concentrating on studies may develop stress which

can be very detrimental to a student health. A young person is not expected to have a

high level of stress. Some of the health problems related to lack of leisure time are loss

of appetite, emotional outburst, difficulty sleeping, isolation and withdrawal, and low

confidence level. Many students trying to work hard actually end up being de-motivated

and their level of anxiety is also very high. In addition, stressful events such as

examination failure may trigger the depressive factor of a person.

We are living in a materialistic era and we are more likely to forget or neglect our

leisure time. Spending at least one hour in doing something we like may actually reduce

the amount of stress. An organized plan of work including small break to relax is

essential especially we want to make progress in life. Young people should balance

their study time and leisure time for a healthy living. Leisure activities can contribute in

the physical and intellectual potential development of a person.

References

Drea C., (2010). Causes Of Stress in Teenager. Retrieved from http://www.livestrong.com/article/134259-causes-stress-teenagers/

Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (1995). Leisure-time activities WPAY. Retrieved from http://social.un.org/index/Youth/WorldProgrammeofActionforYouth/Leisuretimeactivities/LeisuretimeactivitiesWPAY.aspx

eCampusTours. (2012). Dealing with school pressures. Retrieved from http://www.ecampustours.com/campuslife/studyhabitsandtimemanagement/dealingwithschoolpressure#.UadBGECLCSo

Sargunjot. K. (2013). Academic Pressure. Retrieved from http://www.pamf.org/teen/life/stress/academicpressure.html

Amy R., Denise M. Anderson. The Park and Recreation Professional’s Handbook. Retrieved from http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/excerpts/definitions-of-leisure-play-and-recreation