Education: The New High School Kids

Not long ago, grownups bewailed the laziness of U.S. high school students. Now the cry is: "Why do they work so hard and worry so much about getting into college?" In a recent speech titled "A Dull Boy Is Jack," Colorado College President Louis T. Benezet warned that high school is fast becoming a "cramming session" in which the chief dynamic is "quite simply: more." The once lusty word "excellence," writes Harvard Psychologist David C. McClelland, now means only "the ability to take examinations and get good grades in school." As alarmists see...

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