As high schoolers grow older, their test anxiety exponentially increases, but as it turns out, reverting to childhood play toys can ameliorate their situation. 

Because Pinewood has seen rising stress statistics, they came up with a solution to ease the lives of students. The program allows students to choose to take their exams in a ball pit filled with glorious, enormous balls that can de-stress any person by just a glimpse of the pit. Pinewood teachers thought of this idea after seeing how effective one stress ball could help a student calm down. They noticed how the bright colors of the balls were able to mesmerize and distract students from their overwhelming emotions. The logic was that more balls would be even more effective. 

“The plastic balls have a circumference of 50 centimeters, and the ball pit will be about 15 feet in diameter, the right size for about 20 students to test at once,” Assistant Head of Upper Campus Haley Hemm said. “It will be in place for three experimental years.”

Ball pits would be placed in every classroom, and this program will begin at the beginning of the next school year. The ball pit theme will be “Cocomelon,” a popular children’s television show with entertaining nursery rhymes. Amenities like water guns are part of the ball pit so students can distract their classmates by squirting the water guns. Additionally, students will be sent to a timeout area if they are misbehaving while in the ball pit. These students will be forced to wear a dunce hat and do the chicken dance while kneeling on the rough, patchy ground. The goal of the harsh punishment is to deter students from being too disruptive. 

Some students were chosen to test this program for efficacy, and they had to pinky promise that they would keep the new program a secret. However, one brave soul was willing to share some information with The Perennial. The result from the test subjects surprisingly showed lower stress levels and higher grades. After the test, students were allowed to play in the ball pit, which was very rewarding after their grueling hour-long test.              

“I had never felt more confident in taking a test,” freshman Billy Lloyd said. “I was flabbergasted at how easily I finished the test, and in the end, I got a perfect score on the mock exam.”