The principal of Needham High School in the Boston suburbs decided his students were too stressed out. He worried that the high pressure in his affluent suburban school created an unhealthy "ethos of super-achievement" that he wanted to roll back. So he got rid of a published honor roll and introduced required yoga classes for seniors. He's also asked teachers to schedule homework-free weekends and holidays.

Rather than honoring students who have achieved high grades by publishing their names he has opted to remove such recognition. Rather than encouraging time management he has introduced yoga. Not only do such measures discourage real academic achievement but they promote the idea that self esteem matters more than schooling.

The move away from rigorous academic standards and legitimate recognition of student achievement could be one reason why PRI's recent book Not as Good as You Think found so many middle class schools with poor academic records. Of the schools identified as middle class in the book a full 13% had fewer than 50% of their students scoring proficient in at least one grade level in math or language arts. Until schools replace yoga with reading and arithmetic and encourage academic achievement over stress reduction, these numbers are unlikely to improve.