What happens when their stress gets extreme, when the pressures build too high or too quickly and students’ initial “stress” turns to lasting anxiety? They shut down, but not necessarily all at once. Because many of these students lack the skill of expressing complicated feelings with words (many adults lack this ability, too!), they rarely just freeze or “stop dead in their tracks.” Instead, they tend to exhibit a “slow burn” characterized by more frequent expressions of frustration, disillusionment, and, too often, shame.
Slow burn
