Is America’s obsessive achievement culture is making children sick or smart? People are talking about it passionately. After all, it involves their children and their future.

Beyond Measure, a film by Vicki Abeles, also deals with a striking evidence that America’s obsessive achievement culture is making our children sicker, not smarter. And front and center are promising solutions — the stories of courageous communities around the country who are working together to break free from achieve-at-all-costs expectations.

This is a fundamental and foremost question that has been raised by Vicki Abeles and several other experts in the field of education and have found a large number of votaries for the idea of breaking free from contemporary classroom system of education.

It’s interesting that people from a cross section of society, including media, are debating the issue on different platforms. The debate is still continuing. Jay Mathews in Washington Post argues “It is a well-intended project that raises a vital issue, the harmful academic pressure on students in some college-conscious homes. Then the film goes haywire by suggesting too much homework is a national problem when the truth is that high school students on average are doing too little.”

But Katie Couric of  CBS 60 Minutes  said  Race to Nowhere was about the high levels of stress and fatigue in US  schools and how bettering school systems could improve the lives of kids and young adults.

Similarly in India, school children are going through travails when it comes to assessment. Marks or overall growth? Students are more stressed than ever.  Although the reasons are myriad but failure in examination, unemployment, and depression are some the reasons why people put their life at risk.The fear factor is the reason why students suffer from anxiety, depression, and the following consequences.

Unpleasant voices have been raised against the Indian education system which is more inclined towards memorization and takes long systematic study hours thus, leaving less time for recreational activities, and socialization which is an essential part of the educational development of a child.

The emphasis is so much so on the better grades that students forget the fun element in learning. Anything can be made interesting if taught well. So, it’s not only the students who underperform, teachers underperform too. Sadly there is no criteria to judge the grades of a teacher. More than 50% 12th students admitted of having more than 3 private tutors. Why are you paying schools such high tuition fees if eventually the students are going to study from private tutors?