Pressure is its own lesson

A few weeks ago, Richmond County School Superintendent Charles Larke's proposal to raise the academic bar was opposed by a parent who said her son already was having trouble dealing with the current curriculum without making it even more difficult.

This is not a helpful parental attitude. Instead of challenging her son to do better, or getting him a tutor or working with the school to improve his grades, she complains the courses are too tough. What an awful message to send to her kid - that high standards and hard work are unfair to him.

It would be nice to think that such a twisted perspective is an aberration; sadly, it is not. It is widely shared, not only by other parents whose kids are not faring as well as they should in school, but also by some education groups and organizations that should know better.

Take, for instance, the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice. It believes that testing - particularly what it calls "high-pressure exams" - hurts students from learning more than it helps them - that the pressure it puts on kids lowers graduation rates by forcing them to drop out.

To prove the point, the center released a study showing how right it was. States with "high-pressure accountability systems," including Georgia, showed little improvement on national assessment tests. So what? Does that mean there's something wrong with being held accountable?

And what's the alternative - to go back to social promotions and silly notions of "self-esteem"? That's not education; it's delusional thinking.

There's nothing wrong with pressure. It should be part of the educational experience. Kids should not be shielded even from high pressure, because they're going to have to deal with it as adults.

This isn't to say testing can't be overdone. There can be too many of them. Or too much time can be spent in class "teaching to the tests." Obviously, class time needs a healthy balance between educating and testing.

Georgia and South Carolina should not be dissuaded from seeking that balance by some ridiculous studies designed to undermine strong academic curricula. Dumbing down course studies to protect young people from exam pressure is, well, just plain dumb.