Challenges of the Secondary School System "Colleges tell you, 'Just be yourself.' This is great advice, provided you have nine extracurricular activities, six leadership positions, three varsity sports, and stellar SAT scores. So, of course, be yourself! » Those were the words of Suzy Lee, a senior from Pennsylvania, in a controversial Wall Street Journal op-ed. And although many thought Weiss' work was a pity party for a crybaby, it epitomized the state of society when cruelty was inflicted on the most important person in today's society; Me. Someone who comforted me when two projects and three tests forced me to miss an episode of Walking Dead for the first time. But I am only a first class student and looking around me, I realized that the injustice meted out to me was common to my juniors and high school students at my school. Some of them had never seen the undead in their lives. But my story is just one of many. Across America, millions of students are pushing beyond their mental and physical limits by taking the most rigorous courses and participating in time-consuming extracurricular activities in what people call a rat race to get into the hottest colleges. prestigious. And while some students feel their efforts are worth it when they finally get their “cheese” at the college of their choice, the damage done in the process is immense and undeniable. The result of this corrosive system: children are overstressed, unhealthy and ill-prepared. for the uncharted road ahead. Some may say, “If students hate this rat race so much, why don’t they give up?” But what these people don't realize is that we are not dealing with imaginary rats but with real teenagers with real ambitions and dreams. And so these teens are often faced middle of paper...... with comparisons that they believe will motivate success, such as "Tim got 15 AP, got a 4.5 GPA, was captain of the swim team.” , completed 1,000 hours of community service and entered Harvard. You can go too.” The attitude has reached a point where students feel disappointed if they do not meet the requirements to enter such universities. If our education system is to improve, we must first rethink what that means. for students to succeed. Regardless of the overwhelming evidence and simple alternatives, there will always be people who are reluctant to change. And they likely won't be pushed to change their views, because the current school system will continue to produce educated young adults for years to come. But this is done at the risk of the health, character and lives of the students. And we have to ask ourselves: “Is this a risk we are willing to take ??”