The model of elite private schools may be costing their students’ mental health

By George Pritchard, ‘23 and Margot Camp, ‘23

Artwork by Jane Zeigler ‘23

The Catlin Gabel School (CGS) is often regarded as one of the best high schools in Oregon, if not the country. CGS is the number one overall high school in Oregon, according to a  Niche Study.

However, this reputation comes with some limitations. One of those may be the mental health of their students. 

According to a 2019 study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, students at “high achieving schools” are now at high risk for mental health issues, along with youth with parents in prison, youth living in poverty, and foster care, and recent immigrants. 

But a question that has arisen around this study: is this intentional? Do elite private schools have to stress their students to have parents feel like their money, $37,000 per year at CGS, is well spent?

According to nationwide data from ChallengeSucess, 95% of middle and high school students are sleep deprived, and over 60% are constantly worried about academics and identify school workload as a significant source of stress. The ChallengeSuccess organization aims to promote “well-being and engagement with learning.” They have ​​partnered with both Oregon Episcopal School and Jesuit High School to help achieve this at their schools, but not with CGS.  

CGS Upper School counselor, Dan Petrocelli, provided insight into how the environment of high achieving schools affects students’ mental health.

“I have a lot of experience at high-achieving schools; this is the 4th independent private school I've worked at in the past 20 years,” he said.

“People expect, if my kid goes there, they’re going to have a better shot at going to a good college.” 

Aline Garcia-Rubio, head of the Upper School at CGS, seconded Petrocelli’s point in regards to why parents send their children to elite private schools.

“They chose it for the academics, but also because their children will be better known and because there are many more enrichment opportunities.” 

It is no secret, however, that CGS students are stressed on a day-to-day basis, as was identified in a 2016 investigation into students’ mental health at CGS. The data showed “students reported home stressors at the same frequency as interpersonal and school stressors.”

Garcia-Rubio emphasized this point. 

“The stressors were not correlated with academics, but they were correlated with family stressors and what's called networks stressors, not actually homework.” She defined network stressors as “the relationships with students and their friend groups, and students and their families.”

The 2016 investigation also highlighted the external pressure students face from adults in their lives. It states, “mixed messages regarding success from adults can be major sources of home and school stressors,” and that “teenagers may be adopting unhealthy stress management behaviors from adults.”

Charlie Ziehl, a junior at CGS, offered somewhat of a different perspective on what causes stress for students and the impact of that stress. 

“The stress that CGS students are under creates an artificial idea of prestige that the school has and that leads to the school's image being better and that leads to more people applying for the school.” 

Ziehl shared his opinion on what faculty are doing to deal with student stress.

“I think the adults at CGS perpetuate this image, while not intentionally, sort of do this by signing ridiculous amounts of homework that exceed the requirements,” 

The seeming disconnect between students and faculty on the complex issue of student stress is something that is always trying to be improved. Garcia-Rubio highlighted competency-based learning and the de-emphasis of grades, as well as workload restrictions as means of improvement. 

“I think we work really hard to try to accomplish [balancing stress and academic challenge], which is, how do we offer high-quality education for families who want that…  and maintain an environment that feels healthy for students. We are always trying to address that.” 

Petrocelli suggested that CGS is preparing students to deal with stress in their life while acknowledging the school itself is a cause of the stress.  

“We all do need to be prepared for life and all the twists and turns it throws at us, and so for that going through stress and learning how to manage it and learning how to not become too unhealthy through it, is really important. So I would never want CGS to become super easy all of a sudden, but it feels right now like sometimes it's just busyness for the sake of busyness.”