On Oct. 26, Naperville North principal Kevin Pobst addressed student resilience in a letter attached to the weekly edition of the Huskie Howler.

“There has been a steady, incremental increase in the tendency of parents to love their children so much that they want to save them from whatever struggle they might be undergoing,” Pobst said.

According to Pobst, his inspiration for this letter came from his 37 years of working in education.

“My goal is to encourage people to be thinking about whether the things they’re doing increases resilience or tends to undermine it,” Pobst said. “My hope is that when your child faces anxiety and stress, we all embrace the role of developers of resilience.”

According to Pobst, students need to be independent, self-directed learners, who can adapt and adjust to challenges. To do so, they must learn how to overcome struggles.

Math teacher Tracy Goering said that students often overextend themselves, a choice that heightens stress.

“I think some teens try to put too much on their plates,” Goering said. “They want to be involved with a sport, a club and four or five honors classes. It’s too much. It’s definitely too much.”

Like many NNHS students, senior Thomas Higgins struggles with stress when his schedule becomes overbooked with curricular and extracurricular obligations. However, Higgins found a healthy and efficient way to cope.

“I’ll just go workout or listen to music,” Higgins said. “I then go back and try to just focus on getting one thing done at a time instead of thinking about all the other things I have to do.”

To help students decrease stress levels and overcome struggles, many teachers attempt to connect with their students, Goering said.

“I try to just work with them, try to talk to them and encourage them to come in before school,” Goering said. “I’m always here to talk to them if they want to share what’s going on or tell me what’s stressful in their life. That’s what I’m here for.”

According to Pobst, the key to becoming resilient is to overcome feelings of stress and to learn from the experience.

“The key isn’t not to fail or not to struggle,” Pobst said. “The key is to overcome. Sometimes you just fail. You keep moving forward, and you do something else.”