Pressure. It’s powerful, alarming and often goes unrecognized.
The indignant stress comes from parents, peers, school, work, activities and last, but certainly not least, oneself.
2011’s pensive documentary Race to Nowhere is the exceptionally real interpretation of what one may or may not realize is happening amongst his or her peers on a regular basis.
Plain and simple, these things happen. Stress impacts kids of all ages in a way that is far more recognizable in this day and age.
Students now feel the need to perform above and beyond the standards (as they should); but sometimes with the number of things a student takes on, stress rides on his or her back.
One’s desire to be the best they can be is drained out by the increasing importance of testing and numbers, rather than learning by retaining information.
Education in America has mindlessly shifted the focus to test scores, rather than the individual characteristics that make us human.
The kind of educational system that is currently in place can be extremely dangerous. Students currently in school are essentially being robbed of their youth.
As one interviewee in the documentary asks, at what point did it become OK for schools to dictate how we spend our lives after the bell rings?
On the other hand, focusing more on what will happen in the long run, students in schools now will be venturing out into the real world as lazy workers.
A large portion of students now will not know how to function in a learning and progressing society because high schools, middle schools and even elementary schools have not prepared students for college, but rather, as the documentary suggests, the college application.
Not to imply that education is unimportant—because literacy and knowledge are vital; however, it is how one measures the outcome that truly leaves a reason for us to question the values of education in its entirety.
Our society conveys the dark side of the expectations of our culture; the strewed analysis of one’s unfeasible achievements; the dysfunctional standards at which every student—whether at a university level or not—in America is judged.
Define success.
The number of clubs doesn’t determine it and activities you chose to partake in, not your GPA or class rank, not your SAT scores. It is clear that the true corruption of one’s adolescence, as well as the counter-productivity of the educational system, is entirely existent.
Whether a child is in first grade, a junior in high school or a senior in college, the pressures can add up to be extremely severe, killing kids, figuratively, and sometimes literally.
While most are focused on targeting academic pressure, it is vital for students, parents and educators to open their eyes to the reality of people breaking under pressure in a society where we are being taught to strive for an “A”, rather than for knowledge itself—an unfeasible race to nowhere.