When I read Sharon Noguchi’s article, “Depression, anxiety rising among young” (Feb. 20, Page D1), at first I felt fairly empathetic toward the students who were quoted. I do feel the pressure of trying to be “better than the best,” but that’s nothing to cry about.

Tom Changnon, superintendent of the Stanislaus County Office of Education, was just this month talking to the audience of this year’s Stanislaus County Academic Decathlon about how foreign exchange students in the U.S. are not only excelling educationally but are actually bored with the simplicity of our lessons while our students who study abroad have a high tendency to drop out.

And here we are, the youths of our country, literally killing ourselves because we cannot handle what is expected of us academically. I hate to seem uncivil, but I must say that although we sometimes feel that we are being pushed too hard, the fact is that we are not being pushed hard enough.

TATIANA OLIVERA

Ceres

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