Anna Pickette–
If everyone is an overachiever, is anyone an overachiever? And when students overload themselves with work, push for that perfect grade, and pack their schedules until there’s no room left, where do they draw the line? Will they compete with their peers to stand out until the pressure just becomes too much? Join the Rye Crop in this three part series investigating competition and overachieving at RCDS.
After a recent poll of 56 RCDS high schoolers, the question still reigns supreme. Everyone has entirely different views on what it means to be an overachiever (having no free periods, taking six homework-bearing classes, staying up late every night for homework, taking advantage of every extra credit assignment available) and the effects a competitive environment can have on a student’s everyday life. Some love it, some loathe it, and some are simply unsure how to feel. What can be done about this growing problem to compete with friends and peers? Is it inevitable that at one point or another competitiveness and the need to go above and beyond just becomes too much and sucks everyone in? Do students put that pressure on themselves internally or is it deeply rooted in the school culture?
Rye Country Day certainly attempts to promote positive mental health and emphasizes the importance of balance, but do the students really feel like they have that balance in their everyday lives? And if not, what do they believe can be done to rectify that?
A School Full of Overachievers
Almost 90% of polled students would consider themselves overachievers at least some of the time. This unearths even more questions, because what exactly does it mean to only overachieve some of the time? Is it even truly possible? If overachieving is constantly working and pushing to do better and students only do this in certain areas of their lives or certain weeks, do they consider themselves only overachievers occasionally? Does this reveal that the RCDS school culture and opinions about overachieving mean that if students are not working every second of the day they are only overachieving part of the time? And what about those who answered that are overachievers, are they working every minute of every day to be the very best? Even more to that point, when asked what percent of the student body were most likely overachievers as well, 42 people said 75% or more. In contrast, there were also some students who said that there are not that many overachievers at RCDS. Those numbers do not fully match up. Do some students feel like they are going through this alone and that they are the only ones who feel the pressure to be the very best? Or is it something else entirely?
An RCDS student explained more in depth why they think that a lower percentage of the student body are overachievers. “When it all comes down to it, everyone at RCDS probably does more than the average student at a lot of other schools, and our workload is extremely intense. Maybe in comparison to other schools we would all individually be overachievers, but in comparison to each other, the average student at RCDS ‘over-achieving’ is simply doing the bare minimum. So much is expected of us and we expect far too much of ourselves that it all kind of evens out.” Has RCDS invented a new level of overachieving where it is simply seen as the norm, and therefore not even considered “over-achieveing” anymore? Is anything less than over-achieving now seen as not putting in enough effort and slacking off?
Tune into next month’s issue of the Rye Crop, where Pickette will discuss competition among peers and friends.
RYE CROP 
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