Problem: Students are taking more and more APs, joining more extracurriculars and other activities (not to mention fulfilling all their other academic requirements) to become more attractive to colleges, and now it becomes clear that they are too busy to have a complete lunch or must have lunch in their classes.
Solution (according to a few “top-notch” schools in the New York City and San Francisco area): Require lunch too and extend the school day to fit that in, according to an article in the NY Times.
Great idea, right?
But wait, let’s think about this for a moment. There seems to be a caring motivation behind these lunch-mandating policies. Superintendent David Fleishman of Chappaqua New York, whose district high school has extended classes to add a free period for lunch, is quoted in the article saying, “students will have more time to eat in a less stressful way.”
Ok. But if we really care about reducing young peoples’ stress and calming the high school to college rat race that pressures students to seek ways to fit more and more in, then we need to address that issue and recognize it as the problem. Adding in a required period for lunch merely addresses a symptom of the large problem, and will create more frustration among students who can see through the disengenuous educational culture that mandates lunch so students can relax yet meanwhile does nothing to slow down the relentless pressure to do the most and take the “toughest” courses.
Some brave schools choose not to offer APs, believing young people can grow and learn without the extra pressure, stress, and competition that accompany those classes (as well as the rigid curriculum of the courses), knowing that young people can gain the important skills they need in other ways. One resource, ExcellenceWithoutAP, lists some of these schools, including several “top-tier” schools not mentioned in the recent NYTimes article. Instead of APs, many schools practice project-based learning, independent studies, and other forms of self-directed learning that give young people an opportunity to have direction over their own education, pursue areas of interest and meaning, and work with othes on topics that are relevant to themselves and the world around them. (See, for example, Big Picture schools, EdVisions schools, the Jefferson County Open School, the Performance Standards Consortium, and Democratic Schools worldwide).
These approaches build not only the critical thinking and intellectual acumen that APs purport to strengthen, but also enable the development of self-determination, cooperation, self-awareness, and creativity – skills that are often overlooked yet in the education establishment, yet are highly valuable to leading a fulfilling life and are becoming more and more important in this global and technological society.
School districts and policy-makers who want to reduce the stress on young people and release their full potential to grow and flourish ought to change the factors contributing to the stress, not simply tweak a symptom of the problem. Young people are smarter than quick fixes. They want to learn about the world, become their own individual, and succeed. But so long as success is equated with taking the most APs (ie Newsweek’s criteria for selecting the “top” schools) and getting into the best colleges, we will continue to see this stress and the damage it causes to young people, families, and teachers.
However, if we re-frame success as something deeper and more personal, as becoming a self-aware, globally-aware, confident, intelligent human being who knows who they are and what they want to do, then we might begin encouraging more self-directed learning and project-based opportunities. We would then see young people engaging in their own pursuits and gaining knowledge about the world and themselves with determination and excitement – and without the need to require young people to take a break and eat lunch.