Each year the Eden Prairie School District’s Community Education Department organizes an annual Partnership Breakfast. The group includes representatives from the School District, City, County, Faith Community, Non-Profit organizations, and interested citizens from around the community to discuss a theme. The breakfast was held this week at Pax Christie Church. It was sponsored by Community Bank.
This year’s theme was “So, How are the Children?” The presentation was facilitated by the School District’s Prevention Coordinator, Mr. Michael Stanefski and Eden Prairie Police Department Sgt. Randy Thompson. They co-facilitated a presentation on the recent State Survey Trends for Eden Prairie Youth.
That’s Mr. Stanefski in the blue shirt and bow tie:
…and that’s Sgt. Thompson in the middle, also in a blue shirt:
The State Survey researched the perceptions of 6th, 9th, and 12th graders in the State on a wide variety of social subjects. The survey asked students if they perceived their family to be “caring”. It asked whether or not students felt that their teachers respected them. It asked how much stress students felt in their lives. It also asked about drug and alcohol usage.
We learned that, compared to their peers in other Minnesota communities, Eden Prairie students participate in the same level of illegal drug use as students in other communities and that they have an average level of “connection to their community” as their peers in other communities, among other things.
Perhaps the most significant thing we learned about Eden Prairie kids is that, according to this survey, they experience feelings of stress more than their peers in other communities. Both stress at home and at school. There was speculation about why this is happening in Eden Prairie, but the data does not provide a clear reason.
Stress on our children carries a price. Some stress is necessary in order to motivate kids to develop discipline that will serve them well in later life. However, if our kids are stressed more than others in Minnesota, we ought to figure out why and we ought to figure out if the stress goes beyond a healthy level. The data from this survey does not provide an answer as to whether or not stress levels are too high; only that they are high compared to stress levels for kids in other Minnesota communities.
What do you think?
