Matt Seaton argues that human beings actually seek out opportunities to be scared and stressed "in a controlled and modulated way", and that there's a "healthy" level of stress "that makes us work and thrive".

He's responding to a survey published today by researchers at Cambridge University which says that school age children worry daily about global warming, terrorism, and passing exams. Seaton suggests that every generation has had its worries, and that these are simply the current ones. He concludes that we shouldn't, therefore, be particularly concerned about what our children told the Cambridge researchers.

I think Seaton has missed the most important message in this survey.

Of course human beings need to be challenged if things are ever going to change. Of course we need to recognise that there's a problem before we'll prepare ouselves to meet it. But the purpose of stress, remember, is to prepare a human being to act. We then need to discharge our prepared energy. If we don't know what actions we can take, that prepared energy starts to fester, and it becomes chronic anxiety, worry, and sometimes even depression.

The survey isn't taking a stand against stress. It's part of a review about our primary education system. The constructive point of the study is that we should be looking very carefully at what kids are worrying about. Is our education system enabling them to tackle their worries? I don't think so.

Take exams. Children are currently tested nationally at 7, 11 and 14, and of course at GCSE and A levels. Their results come back so long after the tests were taken that children are very unlikely to connect their efforts with the results they get. This is an important disconnection, because that sort of disconnection has been linked with an increased likelihood of depression. Furthermore, children aren't told specifically what they did wrong - and more critically - how they can do better next time. This seems to me to be a perfect prescription for learned helplessness.

Now let's look at two other of the children's major worries, global warming and terrorism. The survey shows that in the schools which tackle the problems that children worry about (those, for example, with eco clubs and recycling schemes to address global warming), children were happier.

The evidence is clear. If we'll spend less time preparing and testing children without giving them any immediate or constructive feedback on the results of their efforts, we'd have more time to offer them the education they actually need to solve today's problems. Let's use this survey to listen to what matters to those who are our future. Let's start teaching them how to be healthy and clear headed, and how to break big problems down into smaller, more manageable parts. Let's teach them how to discharge their readiness to act so they can start feeling that things will improve as a result of their own attitudes and efforts.