WEST WINDSOR-PLAINSBORO: In defense of the Whole Child program

Bushra Hasan
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The Whole Child program initiated by West Windsor-Plainsboro schools Superintendent David Aderhold has faced serious backlash with regard to the A&E math program, No Homework Nights, and the elimination of midterms and finals for the high schools to relieve students of “stress.” There’s a misunderstanding among people who support the program and oppose it, and I’m looking to clarify the purpose of Whole Child.
The word “stress,” in our district, has been quickly adulterated. There is a difference between necessary and unnecessary stress. Healthy stress is what drives students to truly understand the subject matter in class and excel at critical thinking.
The stress that I fear, and that the Whole Child program wishes to remedy, is the downfall of so many students in this district — downfall defined as equating one’s academic achievements or weaknesses to the culmination of one’s being.
Stress only prepares students if they have proper coping mechanisms in the face of a crisis. Not if students don’t know how to handle that stress, which is the underlying problem in this district. There are not enough resources allocated to educating students on their emotional health.
Adolescents don’t simply “learn” stress management, and it’s certainly harder in an environment that constantly makes them feel inadequate. Sure, some students are more natural at adapting to “stressful” situations, but there are more often than not, students haven’t learned coping mechanisms yet.
And as students have demonstrated time and time again, health — both physical and mental, mind you — is secondary to academic success. To personalize this, take my freshman year “motto:” I’d rather die with an A than be alive with a B. It sounds ridiculous, five years after the fact, but this was, and still is, a vivid reality for many high school students.
Another example: in my junior year at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North, a very dear friend of mine withheld a health issue from her mother for at least two weeks, including vomiting blood secretively, persistent migraines, and other unpleasant symptoms. Why? Because her Advanced Placement exams were that week, and if she informed her mother, she would be promptly pulled out of school to visit the doctor (or hospital).
I’m telling these horror stories because they’re not intangible problems from some far away. They were made right here in WW-P. And I don’t think it has to be this way.
However, pinning the blame on a single party ignores the sheer complexity of a situation as unique as ours, a multi-cultural melting pot of brewing academic potential, electrifying determination, and an uneasiness with the uncertainty of a future for which students have been preparing, quite literally, their entire lives.
For so many students, this is their reality. You can’t “decide” to not participate in a hyper-competitive environment. As a result, it’s hard for people, let alone adolescents, to have that kind of self-confidence to reject an omniscient pressure.
Which brings me to another point: Whole Child is not trying to sabotage Asian-Americans, as so many news sources have claimed. And politicizing the issue as such is taking an axe to our well-established principles of diversity. Any alum can attest to an improved experience because of a multi-cultural class.
Our academic competition is not a result of the influx of Asian immigrants, but rather, a perpetuation of unrealistic standards from all involved parties: yes, aggressive parenting may be one cause, but there’s also peer pressure to succeed, claims made by teachers declaring their class is the most important (and thus requiring the most amount of study time), and let’s not forget the burden individual students carry every second of every day, before they go to sleep and the first thing they remember when they wake up.
I’d like to reiterate we all want the best for our children. We want them to be smart, successful, critical thinkers. And I agree with every parent who attended December’s Board of Education meeting that yes, removing A&E exams for fourth and fifth grade was merely a bandage on a bullet wound — it did nothing to accelerate the students who can handle the curriculum nor to assist the students struggling with a sub-threshold mental illness.
But the decision to restrict Option II classes was a result of people abusing the privilege. I don’t doubt that many students used it to fulfill graduation requirements, but the problem is not in the opportunity itself; it is in the reaction to that opportunity. The Option II limit was made for the 200-some students who wanted to skip American Studies for no other reason than “because I can.”
It’s utilitarianism, an idea that students should maximize the benefits of the school district: benefits, in a student’s mind (and indeed, formerly in my own mind as an alumna of High School North), being an increased academic resume, another award to add to the Common Application, and the end goal of a college worthy of a student. Or quite possibly, a student worthy of a college.
Why should the academic environment feel as though everything is against you? Is that the proper way to raise future scholars? Don’t make this argument about whether or not “the world against you” is reality or hyperbole. The fact of the matter is students are mentally unstable.
Everything shouldn’t be against you. This is what we’ve perverted education into. Whole Child is placing focus back onto the students, because academic success does not come from a mind muddy with thoughts of self-deprecation, unhealthy competition, and worthlessness. I want students to do well in school, take the classes they desire, and get into a college that best suits them.
The difference is, it can’t be done with only an accelerated school district. We need reliable mental health resources and grassroots programs so that students don’t think they’re a number, or a test score. When healthy emotions are hand-in-hand with academic rigor, and only then, can we even begin to hope our kids become successful adults. 
Bushra Hasan is a freshman student at Rutgers University majoring in cellular biology neuroscience. 