from the desk of mr. meyer

 August 18, 2021

A recent story on CBS Sunday Morning has me thinking about my friends in EEE and the lives they lead-- a lot. In some ways, the timing feels more than coincidental.  

I  appreciated this story in the same way we all appreciate news that isn't new to us, but shares a reality we know all-too-well with a broader audience. In this instance, the reality is the unhealthy demands placed on the shoulders of our brightest and most ambitious students. Don't get me wrong--building a strong work ethic and taking on ever-increasing academic challenges is one of the central missions of education, from Mercer Island, Washington to Columbia, Missouri and beyond. But this story should cause all of us who care about these students as impressionable kids and future healthy adults to pause. To me, there are few times in the school year where the dangers of this kind of achievement-focused hubris than the next two weeks.

YES. The week before and the first week of the school year. Why? Because this is when my students press harder than any others to craft the Platonic Ideal of (insert 9-12)th Grade Schedules. Or what they think is the Platonic ideal. After all, what do they as teenagers know about What Colleges Want? Seemingly, there is much to be known, as one of the consequences of the Internet Age of College Searching (which I was lucky to miss the inception of by just a handful of years) is that there are several worldwide floods of data available about the requisite scores, grades, activities, etc. to make a University dream possibly become true. But it's amazing how our kids too often boil it down to a simple message:

Do all you can. Then do more, more than anyone you've ever known has done. AP. Dual Credit. Dual Enrollment. ACHIEVE MORE.

And in many ways, there's some self-fulfilling prophecy there. Many of my students "do school" with an intensity, precision, and high level of quality that would put many of us to shame. That is, it might put us to shame if we didn't see the costs that accrue: the sacrifice of sleep (always), social life (often), exercise (unless they are athletes), nutrition and other forms of self-care.  In many ways, EEE students have been training for high school their entire academic lives--  and woe to anyone who would stand in the way of such lives' fulfillment with the Ultimate Academic Challenge. It's not a stretch to see all of this as the professionalization of high school. But more and more, I don't believe anyone should want this for their teen friend or child.  It's just too much too soon. They speak and act like young grown ups but are often a full decade from full brain development. That means something to me.

If you're wondering what this professional precocity looks like, spend some time in our counseling office. My colleagues, the very best in this frenetic business, are fielding dozens of calls and emails from students and parents looking for the 'necessary' tweaks to their schedules (as already painstakingly formed off of maximizing last spring's requests) satisfy them. We (knowing the pushback any attempt to stem this tide systematically would garner) facilitate this as best we realistically can, having no institutional way to say No, this is too many APs  or No, taking online classes from schools across the nation is not a smart way to maximize the system or No, having a weighted GPA should not be seen as permission to put even more pressure on yourself. 

The sound bite from the CBS story that keeps ringing in my head comes from a student towards the end who spills the tea about what's going on here. It shouldn't be, but I find it chilling:  Excessive pressure to excel ranks up there with poverty, trauma, and discrimination as factors hurting adolescent wellness.

I'm working as hard as I can in room 229 to apply the necessary balm-- to unteach the lessons that put achievement over wellbeing and even learning itself--but it will take a concerted effort of a community to make a dent in a culture as ingrained as we have here.

Enrichment Education for the 21st Century: Equity, Empathy, and Exploration are our three new E's.

 YOU can help make EEE a memorable part of their high school years for RBHS students. If you are an academic, professional, or hobbiest who would be willing to supervise a student in a 45 or 90 hour internship about your subject, please reach out to me at jmeyer@cpsk12.org.