In this week’s article on New Trier’s five-year-strong decision to abolish class rank for its students, senior Colleen O’Connor was quoted as saying, “I think class rank is unnecessary. I think there’s enough competition.” Senior Kristen Ann Fox countered that if we had class rank, “students would be more obsessed [with grades] than they already are.” Both of these statements indicate that a competitive atmosphere permeates our school and that class rank was only part of the pressure cooker that is New Trier.
It seems impossible to ignore the competitive culture of New Trier. While students may not always be directly competing against their peers, there is a general feeling of “I need to be better” in almost all facets of extracurricular and academic life. While this striving for excellence can result in great achievements, it can also stifle students’ ability to enjoy high school and all it has to offer.
There are countless examples of this. You don’t just swim; you swim twice a day, two hours each practice. You don’t just do musicals; you hire a personal voice coach and have regular dance lessons. You don’t just run track; you go to eight hour meets that consume a Saturday late into the evening.
There are, of course, exceptions to this, and if someone is considered too intense or overscheduled by one individual, to another they aren’t scheduled enough. Some kids might muddle through by smoking or drinking off the stress on weekends. But for many students this desire for perfection never stops. The ancient Greeks called it arête, a sense of overall perfection or excellence. But when does the need to fulfill this sense of arête go too far?
On the College Board website, there is a section with admissions tips meant to act as a substitute for college counseling. The first tip under “Picking Extracurricular Activities” is to choose “depth over breadth.” And directly or indirectly, New Trier students take this advice to heart. There seems to be no room or time to dabble in different activities; it even seems impossible. For example, in order to be a part of theater productions or even just hear about production opportunities, we have to sign up for a Theater 1 class freshman year or a Theater 2 class sophomore year.
In a situation where students are unable to even try out for something, it chips away at the mentality that high school is a time to explore interests and find a passion.
While some programs, like football, are no cut, some players have given up countless hours to stand on the sidelines, even during practice. In this case, it might be better to have cuts to prevent a kid from being upset by their lack of playing time. Competition of this kind is an inevitable and often necessary part of high school, but it doesn’t mean we should accept the persistent mentality that we must each have a “thing” that defines what we do because it takes up so many hours per week.
This “depth over breadth” college-conscious way of thinking spills over into academic life as well. Whenever many students reference their English or history class, it is not simply “English” or “History”, it is “AP English” or “APUSH”. Students don’t need a decile or rank system because many make an informal one themselves.
What happened to learning for learning’s sake? What happened to doing a club because it’s different and interesting, not because the hours we spend at it can help us get into college? While it is admirable that New Trier took a stand to abolish class rank five years ago, what hasn’t been abolished is the underlying competition that too often helps keep New Trier’s reputation of a pressure cooker alive.