The pressure is on. High schools everywhere tend to depict the perfect student as the kid who gets straight A’s, who does every single extracurricular activity from sports to music to debate. Every student striving for the top- notch college feels that weight of having to do everything and ace those rigorous classes, just like this kid.
But please, let’s take a step back and assess this situation. Is all of this really necessary?
It’s true, if everyone could be that kid, they would and it would be great. But where’s the fun in that?
And maybe the reality is that not everyone can be like that, so we shouldn’t focus on trying to do everything. Instead, let’s focus on our passions and stand out there. Wouldn’t that express yourself more than doing everything, even though you might not necessarily enjoy all of those activities?
It’s sad to think what this pressure does to us high school students. I know Clayton takes pride in their academic achievements and how outstanding each student is, but sometimes, I wonder: is it really worth something to be proud about if students lose sleep in order to take the most difficult classes their schedules can offer? Is it really something we should crown if there are actually students resorting to cheating because they see that as the only way to get that perfect score?
If anything, I hope we’re not proud of that. I definitely don’t think sleep deprived zombies are wonderful.
Yet, I think our school indirectly encourages this behavior from the students. Of course, everyone will say they don’t want to see their students wiped out. The fact is though, that some classes almost require that students study like maniacs and stay up… pretty late.
Here’s an example that our school seems very proud of: standardized test scores.
The beginning of this year, the school did not fail to announce that four seniors received scores of 36 on their ACT and another received a 35. This is, as anyone can see, a huge achievement. But sometimes, it seems like our school puts too much emphasis on numbers. Does it have to be numbers? Numbers don’t tell us anything about what kind of person the student is.
And by emphasizing numbers, how does it affect other students? I don’t know how accurate my thoughts are, but I do believe that these numbers, these statistics, only pressure students even more to be, so to speak, perfect. And where does this lead back to? Our lovely perfect student syndrome.
I’m not asking for Clayton to suddenly stop caring about academics; I’m glad we have such an amazing program at our school. I’m only asking for reassessment in priorities; there is more to students than just grades, scores and course rigor. Let’s actually emphasize that instead of putting pressure on being absolutely perfect in everything.