Your Neighborhood School Is a National Security Risk

Stress, we are told, is toxic, and a school is doing its part to ensure the wellbeing of the next generation if it removes the deleterious effects of competition, comparison, and anxiety. There's a healthy debate about how placing different forms of "performance" on the vertical axis influences the shape of the curve-the optimal level of stress is different for an athlete and a laboratory scientist-but learning is one form of performance, and the principles of the curve apply. [...]if my teacher applies a bit of pressure-"There's a test on Monday" or "There's a paper due"-suddenly I am more apt to study over the weekend, to work hard on the paper. [...]even if the test isn't graded, the stress involved in the process of recall helps encode learning.