I completely agree that this is crucial to effective teaching! It is an underrated and under recognized factor of success. Feeling loved and having love for yourself and others can foster so much self-eficacy and motivation to want to succeed in any area of life, but esp in learning. So much of the education system involves making mistakes that it can lead to people feeling like failures or not worthy. Promoting an environment of love and respect is crucial for both teachers and students to be successful.

I just want to bring attention to the subtitles of the article. The way they are written seem to try to influence the readers opinion negatively on the topic to follow. Which in most cases of the article is fine to do, but its hard for me to understand the tone of the article. Is it research, is it statistics based, is it an opinion piece? I can't tell. But by putting passive aggressive and biased subtitles, the authors influence the readers to read purely with the eye of the authors opinions.

I find it interesting that the author of this article is trying to claim that the comfortable style of the classroom is not good and should not be the norm. I personally feel that students need to feel comfortable, safe, and engaged or they do not feel motivated to learn. I think that is better than setting up an academically challenging environment where the students feel too much pressure, or competition, etc.

Why are we giving the behavior a name? Why are we normalizing it? It is so upsetting to hear that even though society is aware that young girls face issues in being proud of the academic achievement, and yet here we are normalizing their timid classroom behaviors only encouraging the behavior and continuing the cycle.

I faced a lot of issues in my home life during middle school, and can personally attest tho this statement. I too would try to be invisible and avoid my teachers attention. This lead to exactly that, my teacher never gave me attention. Which might have been the worst thing to happen, as I truly needed someone to notice that something was wrong.

To build on the idea that the author is discussing here, its is crucial to bring awareness to the fact that modern sexual ed is limited enough, but is also very heteronormative. Rarely discussing the sexual safety for homosexual relationships or the importance of communication in anyform of relationships. This can absolutely effect the way queer students develop and feel about themselves as they grow up in the american traditional school system.

As a young woman this bit really resonated with me because it highlights how unfair it is to place all the blame on young women while ignoring the roles that schools and society play. It’s frustrating how often girls are shamed instead of supported, and how their struggles get overlooked. When schools avoid these conversations, they miss a real chance to build a safer, more inclusive space for everyone. We can’t create change if we’re only holding individuals accountable and not the systems around them.

That line really hit me because I’ve seen how unfair and one-sided dress codes can be. It’s frustrating how the responsibility is always put on girls to cover up, instead of teaching everyone, especially boys, about respect and self-control. It sends the wrong message that girls’ bodies are a problem, which can lead to shame and insecurity. Schools should focus more on creating respectful environments, not policing what girls wear.

That line made me think about how discipline in schools often targets students of color in unfair ways, even starting in elementary school. I’ve read reports and seen stories about young kids, especially Black and brown boys, being arrested for things that should be handled by teachers or counselors, not police. It’s shocking and honestly heartbreaking that school, what should be a safe space can become a place of fear and punishment so early in life. This makes me question what systems are in place that allow this to happen and how schools can shift toward supporting students instead of criminalizing them.

Again I think it is heartbreaking to read some of the statistics mentioned in this article. As someone who saw and experienced sexual harassment as young as second grade of elementary school is is just horrible to societal norms we have in this countries that allows people (even kids) to feel that this is normal.

I am astonished by the statistics of teens using different drugs in relation to changing the way they look. It honestly scares me to read about how common drugs have become. Its horrible to know that people are so desperate to please others and check all the boxes society puts up for them.

I agree that it is completely devastating how significant body image has become to young girls. I know when I was young that body shape and weight was definitely a topic of discussion and something I thought about occasionally. However it is heartbreaking to hear about and watch how worse those standards become every year is media becomes more prominent in everyone's' lives.

This is something I can attest to facing personally as I developed through high school. Even a difference from freshman year to senior as Tik Tok and social media became more prevalent after COIVD. I see it even worse in my little sister's generation. She is only in junior high and yet there is so much pressure for her to look, dress, speak, and act a certain way at school and online. Girls her age spend so much time trying to look and act grown that they no longer value being a kid. Teens put enough pressures on themselves to "fit in" with their peers. Social media only exacerbated the issue by making teens feel as though they have to meet the unrealistic standards of media in order to "be cool".

I find it very interesting and important to note that it is assumed school classes are "supposed to be boring". I think it is crucial to take note of the fact that we as a country have designed an academic system where students do not feel encouraged to engage or strive. As someone who also went to a low-income high school, I definitely noticed that my motivation to do well in school was definitely influenced by my friends, but if I knew a class was boring, or I didn't like it - it didn't matter who was in the class with me I was not invested in the class at all.