A documentary called The Race to Nowhere has been on a tour around the country, using schools as theaters to audiences of mostly parents. It captures the stress of the most students through interviews and footage of students from third grade to a college level, with the primary focus on middle and high school students. All of them are stressed and sleep-deprived. Several have mental or physical conditions, such as depression and anorexia because of the stress. The documentary cites the 2001 passing of the No Child Left Behind act as a source of the pressure. With the bill’s passing, standardized testing increased in an attempt to improve the academic standing of American students.
Yet, America is still at an (apparently) unsatisfactory global academic ranking. To remedy this, the pressure remained and, in many cases, increased, showing a higher attention to America’s need to excel rather than the condition of students. The pressures brought on by massive amounts of homework and rushing classes lead to that stress that decreases students’ motivation to learn and, in many cases, we forget what we do learn faster. Students fall behind, test scores decrease and, as a result, pressure from teachers and family increases, creating a snowball effect of increased stress and decreased motivation.
Pressure on students needs to be reduced in order to bring back the desire to learn that kindergarten students show so strongly. Maybe then, no child really would be left behind.