Neharika: Do you have any past experiences with Mission, San Jose.

 

Mr.Jan: I attended there from 1997 to 2001, so that is my alma mater. So it's good to go back to my old high school to work with the kids and help guide them through their four years of life there.

 

Neharika: Ok awesome! Since you have attended there, how do you view the students at this high school? 

 

Mr.Jan: Students at the high school, you know, it's a pretty high achieving public high school. The stats from the high school are all pretty high, and the kids are very motivated. In general, compared to other high schools, peer pressure at this high school consists of students wanting to outcompete other students in terms of academics. When it comes to competition in life, for students at mission their academics and their success and their place in society play probably the biggest role in how the students kind of function here. It's a really good high school, you know your peers around you and you get motivated and everything, but a lot of times in terms of growth, there are some hindrances because the focus is strictly based on education and lot of the times the biggest problem with a school like mission is that the students are not the most well rounded.  That started when I was there and to this day I guess the situation is not much different. That's kind of an overview of the type of school Mission is. 

 

Neharika: How do you think Mission has changed? Since you said that you see the similarity in the culture, has there been a certain change from being a student to a teacher? 

 

Mr.Jan: You know, I think in general, the culture is pretty similar. There hasn't been much of a change. I think the one thing that has changed the most is that the school has become a lot less diverse. When I attended the school was already becoming very Asian, but now Mission only consists of two races of people, it's a majority of Chinese and majority Indian. You know, nothing wrong with that, but the cultures are highly motivated. Both cultures really want their kids to do really well in school. I guess the stress of wanting to achieve, not that it's magnified but that you see it more around you. I think in general, the kids are the same, in terms of depression again, it is pretty much the same, but there is more of it around you because more of the kids are coming from the exact same type of culture. 

 

Neharika: Does this generally start from 9th grade or have you seen it expand in the grades that the students increase in? When the student is in 9th grade vs. 12th grade, do you notice a difference in the way they act in terms of stress and anxiety and dealing with it? 

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Mr.Jan: I think in terms of their personal philosophy and belief. In terms of what the kids are trying to achieve, I don't think any of that really changes. I think kids starting as a freshman until senior year, the type of character and personality is already established. I think in terms of students progressing from freshman to a senior they do seem to be experiencing a lot more stress. I mean from freshman year a lot of the students believe if you want to go to a UC, your grades don't count as much so if you kind of mess up you still have a chance to make it up. By the time they reach junior year, however, they feel the pressure of having to take four to five AP classes, which you enter the real world you actually realize that is pretty insane, especially from students who go to universities and see all these kids who haven't taken as many AP classes and still are able to get into the exact same type of university. By junior year, because of the need of what you need to succeed, I think that the pressure probably reaches a climax and kind of comes down their senior year. This is not until they get into their college is when the students experience even the slightest sense of relief. 

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Neharika: Speaking of college classes in high school, do you think AP culture is a thing? If so, what is it to you as a teacher? 

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Mr.Jan: It is definitely a thing. Students nowadays, one, want to take as many units as possible. Two, they believe that if you don't do this, you won't be able to get into the type of school that they want to. And three, they feel that if they don't take the classes that they want, they are left behind in comparison to their fellow classmates. And to me, there are pros and cons to that. Obviously, I want my kids to strive to be their best. the biggest problem in this is that AP culture stunts the growth in a lot of individuals. Social lives, a big part of high school is developing a social life, so you can integrate yourself better later in society. A lot of Mission kids don't have the social ability that kids have in other schools, and they don't realize that it is a really big problem. This is because when you are looking for jobs and are interviewing or even if you are trying to establish a way of life, you can not communicate, you are kind of screwed. Students at Mission definitely have a slight disadvantage in this area. Even though they don't see this as a big problem, it actually is. A big problem with that is that because Mission is very Chinese and Indian, not all are Chinese and Indian, but mostly all students are second generation of Asian American kids, and so their parents don't know any better. The culture being Asian and that of the United States is so drastically different, but they live by what they know. Nothing wrong with that, but there needs to be a little more education on what an education should be. 

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Neharika: Would you actually recommend students to take AP classes overall based on the stress and anxiety levels you see? 

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Mr.Jan: Ya you know, I don't think its necessarily a bad thing. If a student can handle it, I don't find an issue with that. I think that AP classes can be very beneficial for students who are looking for a challenge. I do believe that the students in the AP classes are very good. I think that it's definitely overemphasized. You know I have in my years of teaching, have seen students who have taken zero AP classes and have gotten into very good universities. I have students who have taken too many AP classes, getting bad marks, and not getting into the schools that they want to. I think that the concept of AP classes is good because it does challenge students, but I think the culture does need to be de-emphasized. Especially at Mission, it's kind of abused. 

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Neharika: How many periods of AP classes do you personally teach?

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Mr.Jan: This year I only have two. 

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Neharika: In those AP classes, on a daily average, approximately how many students would you say stress?

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Mr.Jan: Probably like half. 

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Neharika: If the student was to come up to you and talk about his or her experience dealing with an issue like stress and anxiety, what is your biggest piece of advice you would like to give them? 

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Mr.Jan: You know, my biggest piece of advice that I give to kids. You know, it's tough because if they are taking four five AP classes, then there is not much I can tell them to do, because I can't tell them to drop the class because obviously they have already signed up for the situation. But the biggest thing I would probably tell the kid is that you know the goal of a lof the kids is to get into a university, and you want to get into the top university and the best schools that they can get into. I would recommend the student to really reflect on their overall goal. the problem with high schoolers is this, they see one step ahead and that one step ahead is their all. That is their life, that is their end goal, that's all they see. The problem with that is if you put that as your end goal if you finally get it, then what? Because for too many of these high school kids they don't realize that there is life after they getting into the university. They need to see the bigger picture. You know, I might not be able to stop them in terms of what they are doing, but the biggest thing I would tell the kid is that they need to look at the overall picture, figure out what really makes sense and then really go from there. Because if you go into battle without knowing the final goal, then what the heck are you fighting for right? That is the problem with a lot of these kids because you work so hard to make it to a top tier university, but you don't know anything besides that. You don't understand the culture of it, you don't understand what you want to do later in life, you don't even understand what life is all about. You live in this tiny bubble, and there is nothing wrong with that because it's an environment that was created to nurture these kids, but the problem is that your life doesn't end when you turn 19. Your life ends when you are 80, 90, or 100 years old. The problem with a lot of these kids is that they don't have the ability to look at the whole world bigger picture. It's like the frog stuck in a well. 

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Neharika: Since you went to Mission too, if you could look back at your personal experiences and navigating through life to see where you are at right now. What would you like to tell your younger self when he was taking an AP class? 

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Mr.Jan: The biggest thing I struggle with, and I struggle with this every day, just because some habits don't wear off. I think for me personally, I took my health, I risked my own health in being a  Mission student. I almost took every single AP class, I didn't sleep much, and even when I go to the doctors nowadays they tell me that I should be a couple of inches taller based on the rest of my statistics. And that itself already shows that I sacrificed personal health just to do all these classes. And to this very day, I can't sleep more than a couple of hours without waking up just because my body has been doing that ever since I was 11 or 12 years old. That is very detrimental to my overall health later on in life. So that's one thing I would tell myself. I guess for me it was a little bit different because my experience helped me to come back to Mission to educate these kids. I almost feel like I was designed for this. But in general for me personally, I feel like as a Mission kid, you know we all sacrifice something to achieve this lofty goal which at the end of the day isn't as bright as it looks. For me, it has helped, but for some other people, it can be a lot different. It could be their social lives. It could be their actual career world. It could be anything that makes the person who they are. At the end of the day, I believe that God has given us these unique individuals' personalities and characteristics to take on a certain task in life. And I feel like sometimes as a Mission kid, we are stunting that opportunity. We are all not designed to be doctors, lawyers, or engineers. A lot of us were designed to be whatever you could be out there. But what we are fully fulfilled what we are called to do, because we are all unique individuals, we can't all jump into this matrix of a mold and try to become who we are not. Because at the end of the day, the best person we can be is the person we are designed to be. That's one thing that I really hope kids at Mission can fully understand cause at the end of the day, you can be a really really successful engineer. But if you are designed to be an author and you can potentially make millions being an author, you got to pursue that. Kids don't see it that way, but my hope is to really help these kids find who they are so that they can eventually go down that route and pursue that.

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