– Laurence, via emailI’m very clear on this. While I concur that children should be encouraged to face up to the realities of life, that does not include watching them sink into the anxiety and growing depression that you describe here.
Yes, exams are an unavoidable educational fence to be jumped, but their looming presence in your son’s life is having a completely unacceptable effect on him.
You say a cheerful, confident, clever boy has been reduced to a dark shadow of his formerly sunny self. The weight of expectations – his school’s, and his parents’ – is too much.
They’re crushing him.You have the power to lift this burden, Laurence, and I urge you to do so this day. Take your boy aside and tell him that although exams are important, they’re only exams, and not a matter of life and death.
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