Dr. Jim Taylor's blog

It seems like every time you turn on the TV, listen to the radio, open a newspaper, or go on line these days there is a new scandal du jour erupting, giving our sensationalism-addicted, bottom-feeding media culture a reason for being. It’s gotten to be a competition to see who can shock America the most with their depraved behavior. Though professional athletes, entertainers, religious leaders, and people who are famous for being famous are doing their darnedest to win, it seems like politicians are leading the way in this ignominious Ethical Race to the Bottom. All of the contestants are doing their best to prove the axiom: “Never think too little of people, there’s always less to be thought.”

Politicians have always been an ethically challenged bunch. Scandals of all sorts, usually of the financial or sexual varieties, have been de rigueur among politicians for as long as America has existed. But it sure seems like the rate of questionable dealings, ethical “lapses,” corruption inquiries, and outright criminal behavior has been on the upswing during the last decade. It may be that the increased influence of special interests or special relationships has lured more politicians to the dark side. Or it may simply be that our opprobrium-seeking 24/7 news cycle makes us more aware of those scandals that do occur.

As someone who leans left of center on the political spectrum, I was pleased to see the Republicans, led by an all-star team comprised of Tom Delay, Ted Stevens, Duke Cunningham, Larry Craig, Mark Foley, Bob Ney, Mark Sanford, and John Ensign, take a big lead in this race during the early part of the new millennium. And I was feeling pretty darned smug about how much more ethical the Democrats were as evidenced by their success in regaining control of Congress in 2006 by campaigning against the “culture of corruption” created by the Republican party.

But my holier-than-thou attitude turned into a unappetizing helping of crow before too long. Though Republicans are a formidable and headline-grabbing team (sort of like the Yankees), I shouldn’t have underestimated the more understated, though no less potent, Team Democrat when it comes to acting in ways that would make your mama ashamed she ever had you. Though they may have started more slowly in the Ethical Race to the Bottom, the Democrats have been surging of late and are making a run at the Republicans. The Democrats are actually making a real race of it by bringing some generally lesser known players (with a superstar or two thrown in) up to the plate including Charlie Rangel, William Jefferson, Jim Traficant, Eliot Spitzer, Rod Blagojevich, Don Siegelman, John Edwards, Eric Massa, and Jim McGreevey.

This race is human drama at its best (or worst). There hasn’t been a moment’s respite in this exciting competition to see how low politicians can go in the name of greed, ego, or hormones. I have an idea. Wouldn’t the Ethical Race to the Bottom make a great TV show? Given that the reality genre is the hottest property on television, it seems only natural that America deserves a new show for its salacious viewing pleasure that highlights the worst that our elected representatives have to offer. I’ll run my idea by the folks at Fox.

In the meantime, who will win this Ethical Race to the Bottom? I don’t know, but after eating plenty of humble pie, I’m getting to the point where I don’t care. But I do know and care about who the losers will be in this race: the American people.

It’s natural to feel some increase in your intensity in a competition. You’re putting yourself to the test and want to do your best. But when that increase intensity turns to anxiety that can hurt your performances, that can be a problem. But rather than just resigning yourself to feeling nervous and performing poorly, you can take active steps to reach and maintain your prime intensity so you can performing your best. There are a number of simple “psych-down” techniques you can use to get your intensity back under control.

Deep breathing. When you experience overintensity, one of the first things that’s disrupted is your breathing. It becomes short and choppy and you don’t get the oxygen your body needs to perform its best. The most basic way to lower your intensity then is to take control of your breathing again by taking slow, deep breaths.

Deep breathing has several important benefits. It ensures that you get enough oxygen so your body can function well. By getting more oxygen into your body, you will relax, feel better, and it will give you a greater sense of control. This increased comfort will give you more confidence and enable you to more easily combat negative thoughts (which are often the cause of the overintensity). It will also help you let go of negative emotions such as fear or frustration, and allow you to regain positive emotions such as excitement. Focusing on your breathing also acts to take your mind off of things that may be interfering causing your overintensity.

For athletes who participate in sports that involved a series of short performances, such as baseball, football, tennis, and golf, deep breathing should be a part of your between-performance routine. One place in particular where deep breathing can be especially valuable to reduce intensity is before you begin another performance. If you take two deep breaths at this point, you ensure that your body will be more relaxed, comfortable, and prepared for the upcoming performance.

Muscle relaxation. Muscle tension is the most common symptom of overintensity. This is the most crippling physical symptom because if your muscles are tight and stiff, you simply won’t be able to perform at your highest level. There are two muscle-relaxation techniques you can use away from your sport and, in a shortened form, during competitions: passive relaxation and active relaxation. Similar to deep breathing, muscle relaxation is beneficial because it allows you to regain control of your body and to make you feel more comfortable physically. It also offers the same mental and emotional advantages as does deep breathing.

Passive relaxation involves imagining that tension is a liquid that fills your muscles creating discomfort that interferes with your body performing its best. To prepare for passive relaxation, lie down in a comfortable position in a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. As you go through the passive relaxation procedure, focus on your breathing, allow the tension to drain out of your muscles, and, at the end, focus on your overall state of mental calmness and physical relaxation.

Active relaxation is used when your body is very tense and you can’t relax your muscles with passive relaxation. When your intensity is too high and your muscles are tight, it’s difficult to just relax them. So instead of trying to relax your muscles, do just the opposite. Tighten them more, then relax them. For example, before a competition, your muscle tension might be at an 8, where 1 is totally relaxed and 10 is very tense, but you perform best at a 4. By further tightening your muscles up to a 10 , the natural reaction is for your muscles to rebound back past 8 toward a more relaxed 4. So, making your muscles more tense at first then results in them becoming more relaxed.

Active relaxation typically involves tightening and relaxing four major muscle groups: face and neck, arms and shoulders, chest and back, and buttocks and legs. It can also be individualized to focus on particular muscles that trouble you the most.

To prepare for passive relaxation, lie down in a comfortable position in a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. For each muscle group, tighten your muscles for five seconds , release, and repeat. As you go through the active relaxation procedure, focus on the differences between tension and relaxation, be aware of how you are able to induce a greater feeling of relaxation, and, at the end, focus on your overall state of mental calmness and physical relaxation.

These two relaxation procedures can also be used during a competition (for those sports comprised of a series of short performances) in an abbreviated form. Between performances, you can stop for five seconds and allow the tension to drain out of tense parts of your body (passive relaxation) or tighten and relax the tense muscles (active relaxation).

Slow the pace of competition. A common side effect of overintensity is that athletes tend to speed up the tempo of competition. Athletes in sports such as tennis, golf, baseball, and football can rush between performances almost as if they want to get the competition over with as soon as possible. So, to lower your intensity, slow your pace between performances. Simply slowing your pace and giving yourself time to slow your breathing and relax your muscles will help you lower your intensity to its prime level.

Process focus. One of the primary causes of overintensity is focusing on the outcome of the competition. If you’re worried about whether you will win or lose, you’re bound to get nervous. The prospect of losing is threatening, so that will make you anxious. The thought of winning, especially if it’s against an opponent you have never defeated before, can also be anxiety provoking because it may be unfamiliar or unexpected to you.

To reduce the anxiety caused by an outcome focus, redirect your focus onto the process. Ask yourself, what do I need to do to perform my best?  This process focus can include paying attention to your technique or tactics. Or it might involve focusing on mental skills such as positive thinking or the psych-down strategies I am currently describing. You can also shift your focus onto your breathing which will take your mind off of the outcome and will directly relax your body by providing more oxygen to your system.

A process focus takes your mind off things that cause your over-intensity and shifts your focus onto things that will reduce your anxiety, build your confidence, and give you a greater sense of control over your sport.

Keywords. Another focusing technique for lowering your intensity is to use what I call intensity keywords. These words act as reminders of what you need to do with your intensity to perform your best. Keywords are especially important in the heat of a tight competition when you can get so wrapped up in the pressure that you forget to do the things you need to do in order to perform your best. By saying the keyword between performances, you’ll be reminded to use the psych-down techniques when your intensity starts to go up. I also recommend that you write one or two keywords on a piece of tape which you then put on a piece of your equipment. Looking at the equipment acts as a further reminder to follow the keyword and lower your intensity.

Music. Music is one of the most common tools athletes in many sports use to control their intensity. We all know that music has a profound physical and emotional impact on us. Music has the ability to make us happy, sad, inspired, and motivated. Music can also excite or relax us. Many world-class and professional athletes listen to music before they compete to help them reach their prime intensity.

Music is beneficial in several ways. It has a direct effect on you physically. Calming music slows your breathing and relaxes your muscles. Simply put, it makes you feel good. Mentally, it makes you feel positive and motivated. It also generates positive emotions such as joy and contentment. Finally, calming music takes your mind off of aspects of the competition that may cause doubt or anxiety. The overall sensation of listening to relaxing music is a generalized sense of peace and well-being.

Smile. The last technique for lowering intensity is one of the strangest and most effective I’ve ever come across. A few years ago, I was working with a young professional athlete who was having a terrible practice session. She was performing very poorly and her coach was getting frustrated with her. She approached me during a break feeling angry and depressed, and her body was in knots. She asked me what she could do. I didn’t have a good answer until an idea just popped into my head. I told her to smile. She said, I don’t want to smile. I told her to smile. She said she was not happy and didn’t want to smile. I told her again to smile. This time, just to get me off her back, she smiled. I told her to hold the smile. During the next two minutes there was an amazing transformation. As she stood there with the smile on her face, the tension began to drain out of her body. Her breathing became slow and deep. She said that she was feeling better. In a short time, she was looking more relaxed and happier. She returned to practice, her performance improved, and she made some progress during the remainder of the practice session.

Her response was so dramatic that I wanted to learn how such a change could occur. When I returned to my office, I looked at the research related to smiling and learned two things. First, as we grow up, we become conditioned to the positive effects of smiling. In other words, we learn that when we smile, it means we’re happy and life is good. Second, there’s been some fascinating research looking at the effects of smiling on our brain chemistry. What this research has found is that when we smile, it releases brain chemicals called endorphins which have an actual physiologically relaxing effect.

For all of these psych-down techniques to be effective, you should rehearse them in practice and less important competitions. The goal is to ingrain them so well that when you get to a major competition where you are likely to feel nervous, you will automatically use them, your intensity will decrease to a more comfortable level, and you will be better prepared to performance your best.

According to the research of Dr. Anders Ericsson, motivation is the most significant predictor of success. In simple terms, Dr. Ericsson found that experts in many walks of life, whether sport, music, chess, dance, or business, had put in the most hours at their craft. He coined the phrase, “It takes 10 years and 10,000 hours to become an expert.” Other research has show that the longer someone is in a career, the less important innate ability (i.e., intelligence) is and the more important motivation becomes. In other words, the most successful people just keep plugging away longer than others. Why is the relationship between motivation and success so robust? Because high motivation will ensure total preparation which will, in turn, ensure maximum performance and results.

Defining Motivation

Let’s first consider what motivation is in very practical terms. Motivation can be defined in the following ways:

• An internal or external drive that prompts a person to action
• The ability to initiate and persist at a task
• Putting 100% of your time, effort, energy, and focus into your work
• Being able to work hard in the face of obstacles, boredom, fatigue, stress, and the desire to do other things
• Motivation means doing everything you can to be as productive as you can.

Impact of Motivation

But it’s one thing to saying you are motivated to achieve your goals; it’s another entirely different thing to have that motivation translate into actual action toward those goals. Motivation is so important because it impacts every aspect of your business efforts:

• Preparation
• Persistence
• Physical health
• Lifestyle
• Outcome

Motivation Matrix

For every businessperson, there is a different motivation that drives them toward their goals. The Motivation Matrix breaks down motivation along two dimensions: Internal vs. external and positive vs. negative. The resulting four quadrants can each provide motivation, but will produce very different experiences and outcomes.

• Internal-positive: Challenge, desire, passion, satisfaction, self-validation (outcome: successful, fulfilled, happy).
• External-positive: Recognition and appreciation from boss and co-workers, financial rewards, stable life (outcome: some success, mostly fulfilled, dependent on others for continued success and good feelings).
• Internal-negative: Threat, fear of failure, inadequacy, insecurity (outcome: considerable success, high rate of burnout, unhappiness).
• External-negative: Fear of loss of job, insufficient respect from boss and co-workers, financial pressure, pressure from significant others, unstable life (some success, anxiety-ridden, unhappy).

Obviously, the ideal type of motivation is internal-positive because the motivation is coming from a place of strength and comfort. At the same time, there has been research that has shown that many successful business executives are driven by insecurity, suggesting that an internal-negative or external-negative motivation can lead to success (though rarely happiness). Which quadrant do you think you belong to? If you are not in the internal-positive quadrant, you might want to reevaluate your motivations and work toward that place in the matrix.

Effort vs. Goals

It’s really quite simple. All else being equal, whatever you put into your work efforts is what you will get out of them. Also, if you are among a group of equally capable colleagues or companies, the one who puts in the most time and effort is the one who is going to be most successful. A problem I see among many people in the business world these days is a disconnect between their efforts and their goals. When I speak to groups of young businesspeople, I always ask how many have big goals, like moving up to senior management or starting their own company. Just about everyone raises their hand. I then ask how many are doing everything they possibly can to achieve their goals. Only a few tentative hands go up. What this tells me is that there is often a gap between the goals they have and the effort they are putting into those goals. It’s easy to say that you want to be a successful businessperson. It is much more difficult to actually make that happen. If you have this kind of disconnect, you have two choices. You can either lower goals to match your effort or you can raise your effort to match your goals. There is no right choice. But if you’re truly motivated to be successful, you better make sure you’re doing the work necessary to achieve your goals.

The Grind

The demanding nature of the business world means that you will likely be doing work that will take you far beyond the point at which it is fun and exciting. This junction is what I call The Grind, which starts when it gets stressful, tiring, and tedious. The Grind is also the point at which it really counts. The Grind is what separates successful businesspeople from those who are less successful. Many businesspeople when they reach this point either ease up or give up because it’s just too darned hard. But truly motivated businesspeople reach The Grind and keep on going.

Many corporate psychologists will say that you have to love The Grind. I say that, except for a very few hyper-motivated businesspeople, love isn’t in the cards because there’s not much to love in The Grind. But how you respond to The Grind lies along a continuum. Loving the Grind is rare. At the other end of the continuum is “I hate The Grind.” If you feel this way, you are not likely to stay motivated. I suggest that you neither love nor hate The Grind; you simply accept it as part of the deal in striving toward success. The Grind may not feel very good, but what does feel good is seeing your hard work pay off with success.

Prime Motivation

Prime motivation means working hard consistently under the most challenging conditions. It involves doing everything possible to achieve your professional goals.

Prime motivation begins with what I call the three D’s. The first D stands for direction. Before you can attain prime motivation, you must first consider the different directions you can go in your work. You really have three choices: stop completely and find a new line of work, continue at your current level, or strive to be the best businessperson you can be.

The second D represents decision. With these three choices of direction, you must decide on one direction in which to go. None of these directions are necessarily right or wrong, better or worse, they’re simply your options. Your choice will dictate the amount of time and effort you will put into your work and how successful a businessperson you will ultimately become.

The third D stands for dedication. Once you’ve made your decision, you must dedicate yourself to it. If your decision is to become a truly successful businessperson, then this last step, dedication, will determine whether you have prime motivation. Your decision to be your best and your dedication to your work will then become a top priority. Only by being completely dedicated to your direction and decision will you ensure that you have the prime motivation you will need to achieve your professional goals.

We all know the power of the Internet for good. It offers a wealth of information, connects people who are miles and cultures apart, and allows news to be disseminated instantly. But I recently learned of a young man whose reputation, and perhaps his life, has been devastated because of information, later proved to be erroneous, that was circulated through email and social media. His story illustrates the dark side of information in the 21^st century and confirms our need to ensure that, in our real-time, instant-access world, the information that is spread through cyberspace is both timely and accurate.

Here’s what happened. This young man, I’ll call him Steve, was stopped by police in a small Midwestern town in which he grew up following reports of suspicious behavior (he was taking photos of houses and businesses as part of research for documenting his family tree). A search of the man’s car revealed rope, duct tape, a ski mask, a pair of black gloves, and a hammer in the trunk (the supposed tools of the trade of kidnappers and child molesters). But, as there was no evidence of a crime, Steve was allowed to continue on his way. Nothing that unusual or untoward so far.

Here’s where things start to get out of hand. After the stop, the local police contacted the police department of Steve’s current town of residence and that town’s police mistakenly told them that he was a suspect in a 2002 local child abduction/molestation case. Despite the fact that this information was wrong and Steve had no criminal record beyond a few traffic violations, one of the police officers passed this information, that included his name and photo, on to administrators at the local schools via an email. In response, school officials copied parts of the officer’s email into a notice that was sent to parents. From there, the high-performance engine of social media took over. Out of genuine concern I’m sure, someone posted the notice that included Steve’s identity and the unfounded allegations on Facebook and the misinformation went viral.

There are several unsettling aspects of this unfortunate use of social media. First, as I have noted in a previous blog post, the speed and ease of spreading information online can preclude people from taking the time to think deliberately about issues and decisions before acting on them. The result? A lot of poor judgments and bad decisions with the associated collateral damage.

Second, as we know from media events from the recent past, once information makes it into cyberspace, regardless of its veracity, it will remain there and can haunt people in perpetuity.

Third, research has shown that information that makes it to the Web continues to be believed even when later information is posted that demonstrates it to be false. So, no matter how hard people who are sullied by misinformation or downright lies try to clear their name, there is no way to remove that harmful cyber footprint.

Would much of this sad tale have happened without social media? Of course. Bad things happening to good people and people making poor decisions didn’t start with the public launch of the Web in 1994. But, to paraphrase the Oscar-winning film, The Hurt Locker, the blast area wasn’t nearly as large nor the damage as extensive.

There have been more egregious examples of how social media can be used as weapons, for example, the growing problem of cyberbullying through mean-spirited web sites and texting as tragically exemplified by the suicide of Megan Meier in 2006. But Steve’s story demonstrates how the reputation and perhaps life of an innocent person can be summarily ruined as a result of an equally innocent, yet misconstrued, occurrence, poor due diligence and decision making on the part of people who should know better, and, ultimately, the power of social media.

Note: Some of the information included in this post was obtained from a local newspaper article reporting on the story. Ordinarily, I would include a link to the article, but to protect Steve from further attention, I am not doing so.

I’ve been hearing so much about budget cuts to public education in the news lately. Last week, there were demonstrations all over the Bay Area protesting the massive budget cuts to public colleges, and secondary and elementary schools throughout California. And these protests weren’t just on the college campuses of Berkeley, Santa Cruz, and Davis, but also at elementary and high schools with kids and parents expressing their outrage. It’s particularly unsettling for me because our eldest daughter will be going to kindergarten next year and we’ve been touring the local schools. The constant drumbeat we hear from administrators, teachers, and parents is how painful it is to have to fire teachers, reduce or eliminate teachers’ aides and specialists, scrap arts, language, and physical education programs, and increase class sizes.

Public education used to be the foundation of our country and a model for education all over the world. It was responsible for upward mobility, the establishment of the middle class, and the basis for financial security for the vast majority of our citizens. It was also the springboard to higher education, providing students with the information and skill sets they needed to succeed in college and beyond. In other words, it was the basis for the American Dream.

No longer for much of public education. School facilities are crumbling, dropout rates are soaring, test scores are falling, and, at a fundamental level, more and more young people are leaving public education without the tools necessary to become vital and contributing citizens or the ability to participate, much less survive in, the global economy.

There are many problems with our public education system, including entrenched bureaucracies, powerbrokers invested in maintaining the status quo, outdated curricula, overly powerful teachers’ unions, incompetent teachers, and students unprepared by their families to succeed in school. And there are an abundance of proposed solutions coming from both sides of the political aisle that include closing failing schools, charter schools, school vouchers, universal pre-school, student testing, and increased teacher salaries.

But any changes have to begin with money. I’m not saying the dollars are a universal panacea. We need only look back over the last 25 years and see how billions of dollars have been spent with little appreciable return on that investment in the form of improved schools and better educated students. But no improvements will be possible without sufficient funding to enact any changes. And reductions in school funding will only guarantee further declines in the already low quality of much of public education in America.

Now we get to the sticking point. Everyone wants quality public education, but no one seems willing to pay for it. Why? Because the only way to adequately fund public education is to increase taxes. Uh oh, now I’m really skating on thin ice. For those who are fiscally conservative, raising taxes is anathema. And during these tough economic times, who wants to take money out of the pockets of hard-working Americans.

But I actually believe that most Americans would be willing to pay higher taxes for something as important as our children’s educations. Americans have always been willing to make sacrifices for good of our country and, if called on today, would step up to the plate.

And there is nothing more important to the future of our country than the education of our future generations. Our ability to have a vibrant and flourishing democracy is at stake. Our offer of the American Dream is at stake. Our preeminence on the world stage is at stake.

Because, folks, we either pay now or pay later. Better to pay now because the price later will be unaffordable and it will also be too late; the damage to our children and to our country will be irreparable.

Recent surveys have shown that trust and regard that Americans hold for their elected officials in Washington is at historic lows. And those government officials wonder why they are aren’t on anyone’s Most Popular list these days. Let me count the ways: bailouts, backroom deals, tax cuts for the wealthy, extreme partisanship, election-year politics, the list goes on and on. This behavior among those who purport to represent us is really just business as usual in the Beltway. But this wanton disregard feels like a real betrayal lately given that most ordinary Americans are having a hard enough time without being kicked while they’re down by the very elected representatives who are supposed to be helping them up.

It seems clear to those of every political persuasion that many (dare I say most) politicians have lost touch with those whom they are supposed to represent. I can understand that politicians have different ideas about how to best serve their constituents, but their legislative efforts these days are so disconnected from the needs and goals of regular Americans that, to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, they can’t even fool some of the people some of the time into thinking that they care about us. Here’s a great example. The Senate Banking Committee responsible for creating banking reform legislation recently met with representatives from the banking industry (read lobbyists) to get their input. Did the committee also meet with a representatives of, well, us regular folks to get our feedback about the legislation? That’s a big negative. What input could the banking lobbyists provide other than to ensure that the reform was favorable to them and harmful to us? What benefit would the committee garner from such a meeting? Oh yeah, how naïve of me, campaign contributions.

I think that our elected representatives need to return to school to take American History again (which they obviously failed the first time around) and learn three words that might enable them to actually earn the title of “representative.”

The first word our government should learn is “of,” as in “of the people.” The of of which I speak refers to the notion that our government should be comprised of people like us rather than from an oligarchical cabal that shows little resemblance to ordinary Americans. Yet, it has become painfully clear to those of us who belong to the “us” group that our government is dominated, both within and outside, by those with wealth and status who have little regard for anyone else.

The second word our government should learn is “by,” as in “by the people.” The by of which I speak refers to the notion that our government is a proxy for its citizens, in other words, they = us. In this role, we should be able to trust that our best interests are served in Washington because they want the same thing as we do because, well, they are us. Unfortunately, they ? us, they = $$$ + power and we = nada. With this disconnect between America’s citizenry and its elected representatives, they can still claim to be elected, but can’t fairly claim to be representative.

The third word our government should learn is “for,” as in “for the people.” The for of which I speak refers to the notion, now seemingly quaint and outdated, that all activities in Washington are devoted to serving the best interests of its citizens. Even in a political culture as polarized as ours, we can all agree that the symbiotic relationship that currently exists in Washington between our elected officials and special-interest groups serves the best interests of those in power with only the occasional appearance of concern for us lowly citizens.

I would like to see two things happen to those gentlemen and ladies whom we did elect, but don’t deserve to be called our representatives.

The next time they are up for election, we the American people assert the last vestige of power we still do hold and demonstrate to them in no uncertain terms that if they will not act as our representatives, then we will not elect them again.

But before that, those in Washington should be forced to stand in front of the American people and repeat the last sentence of the Gettysburg Address one time for every time that they met with a lobbyist or took special-interest money. Because those people in Washington whom we elected obviously don’t know that last sentence, I’ll provide crib notes (with special emphasis on the last words): “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Race to the Top is the name given to President Obama’s education-reform program that is supposed to change the education system in America. But what it should be called is Race to Nowhere, which happens to be the name of a powerful new documentary by Vicki Abeles that explores, as the film’s subtitle states, the dark side of America’s achievement culture.

I saw Race to Nowhere last week with my wife and was blown away by its message. As the father of two young girls, it scared the heck out of me what lies ahead for them. And as the author of two parenting books with similar messages as the film, it was a real reminder of the very human and societal costs of our current education system. Through interviews with students, parents, teachers, and other educators, and bookended by a story about a 13-year-old girl who committed suicide after failing a math test, we see the price that so many young people are paying for trying to hang onto the runaway train of academic overachievement.

The pressure young people are under to achieve that elusive notion of success has become, for many, a crippling weight on their shoulders and the price tag is high. Race to Nowhere presents some compelling arguments against the emphasis on test scores that increased exponentially with the passage of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (it should be called the Almost Every Child Left Behind Act, given its abysmal record in raising test scores or graduation rates, much less actually educating children). Students now focus on memorizing facts (and then forget them shortly after), find learning to be aversive rather than inspiring, and see no problem with cheating to get ahead (in the 1940s, 20% of students admitted to cheating in high school; today, well over 75% make the same admission).

The physical and psychological toll is heavy as well. Students rate academic stress as their greatest source of stress, exceeding family problems and bullying. Rates of stress-related illness, depression, anxiety, and burnout are on the rise. Academic-performance-enhancing drugs, such as the ADHD drug Adderall to enhance energy and focus and beta blockers to reduce anxiety, are SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) on high-school and college campuses. And teenage suicide rates, particularly among teenage girls, have increased dramatically in recent years.

What is this culture of faux achievement like? Let’s look at more statistics from the film. More than 70% of young people don’t get the recommended amount of sleep for their stage of development (and sleep is essential for healthy brain development). Children have lost 12 hours of free time each week while homework time has increased by 50%. Homework is now given as early as first grade and reaches its apogee in high school where students now spend up to seven hours a night on homework, despite evidence demonstrating that it has no value up to 5^th grade and loses its value if greater than one hour for middle-school students and two hours for high-school students. And talk about being unprepared; 40% of students require remedial classes when they get to college.

The numbers are truly frightening, but the interviews of students, parents, and teachers in Race to Nowhere really hit home. The frustration among teachers, the sadness among students, and the fear and pain felt by parents bring the cold, hard data to life. No parent can leave the film without a profound feeling of disgust at our education system, a mama or papa bear’s instinct to protect  their cubs, a determination to catalyze a transformation, and, sadly, a feeling of futility about changing such an inertial system.

How did this pressure-cooker of an achievement culture (and, by the way, it can be found in sports and the arts as well as in school) develop? There are many culprits, some legitimate and others manufactured and dishonest. The economic instability and uncertainty that has increased in recent years has created genuine fear among parents for their children’s future. This fear drives parents to push their children relentlessly to ensure that they get ahead in school. Popular culture, and the aspirational dreams it has spawned, has redefined the meaning of success upward in terms of wealth, status, and materialism, so that being merely competent at one’s job and comfortable in one’s lifestyle is akin to failure; everything must be bigger and better and more, more, more. The availability and demand for a college education, particularly in the “best” schools (read Ivy League or its equivalent), have far outpaced supply, so competition is greater than ever (I attended Middlebury College back in the day, but I probably couldn’t get accepted now with my GPA and SAT scores). The child-development, tutoring, and testing industries are an almost $10 billion scam that feeds on the fears of parents that their children will be left behind.

The ramifications for the students themselves extend beyond the current physical and psychological toll; there may very well be a price they pay in their futures. For example, such a mind- and body-numbing educational experience will suck any joy of learning they may have right out of them. The current emphasis on rote memorization will sap their internal motivation to learn. As highlighted in Race to Nowhere, today’s students may lack the critical thinking, creativity, and focus necessary to survive, much less thrive, as they enter higher education and the working world.

The toll on our country may be equally dramatic. Are we leaving this generation’s young people ill prepared to assume the mantle of leadership? Will they have the knowledge and tools necessary to continue America’s arc as the frontrunner in innovation and progress? The low rankings currently held by our students compared to other countries on international achievement tests don’t bode well for their or our future.

Is there hope? I’m not optimistic that effective federal or even state education reform will ever happen given the political hot potato that it is. But there appears to be a smidgen of hope at other points in the educational food chain. Colleges and universities, one of the big culprits of this academic arms race, have the power to ratchet down the pressure and some appear to be getting the message. A growing number of prominent schools are not accepting AP courses or are making SAT scores optional. Some high schools are following this lead by abolishing AP classes from their curricula (with, by the way, no damage to college acceptances).

So what can you do to provoke educational reform in your schools? Be active in your school’s parent association. Show the school administration the latest research findings. Join your local school board. Be a squeaky wheel in your children’s schools. Be willing to buck the system. Make the need for change urgent and immediate; you don’t want your kids to miss out!

Lastly, and at the bottom of the educational food chain, the only educational reform you have total control over is that of your own family. You should give serious thought to how you want your children to be educated and then explore school options that are consistent with your educational philosophy. Whether public, charter, private, or home schools, you have choices in where your children go to school. As Vicki Abeles demonstrated in Race to Nowhere, you have the power to step off that runaway train.

It has been shocking and bewildering to watch the behavior of some of the top banking CEOs in recent months, punctuated by the appearance of four of these executives before Congress last month. Some questions immediately pop into my mind. Do they follow the news? Have they no conscience? Do they not have public-relations people on retainer? The answer to all three is, apparently, no because it is clear that they are so far out of touch with reality.

These are obviously intelligent and well-educated men, yet they are missing from their vocabularies what I consider to be three essential words that would make their involvement in the Great Recession just a little bit more palatable.

The first word is contrition. Instead, the word we are getting from these Masters of the Universe is excuses (and equivocations, evasions, and denials, I might add). If we sensed contrition, we might believe that they assumed just a small degree of culpability and felt just a little bit of remorse for their parts in causing this financial mess (to his credit, Morgan Stanley’s John Mack did apologize to Congress last year). As we know from the rare apologies from previous fallen public figures, we often respect people who hold themselves accountable and actually forgive their transgressions (at least to a degree) after such admissions.

The second word is gratitude. Instead, the word we are getting from these Titans of Industry is entitlement. We the American taxpayers bailed their greedy, morally hazardous backsidess out of trouble because we were told that their companies were “too big to fail.” Yet, do we get a “Thanks” or a “We appreciate it?” Nope. No come-to-Jesus moment for these Gods of Finance. Just a rush to pay back the TARP loans to free themselves of the chains of government control and a return to business as usual, with indefensible bonuses and continued financial recklessness. Their companies may be too big to fail, but I think their egos are too big to fail as well.

The last word is humility. Instead, the word we are getting from these Towers of Power is arrogance. They seem so blinded by their own exceptionalism that to look critically at their roles in the financial meltdown would be a seismic threat to their poorly designed and shoddily constructed views of themselves. After an individual or organization has obvious responsibility for a disaster, I don’t think it’s too much to ask to have them feel humbled by the harm they caused and, even more important, learn some lessons that might prevent them from making the same mistakes again. But not these Dynamic Dealmakers. The status quo of living high and mighty is back.

I would like to see two things happen to these Top Guns.

The next time Big Finance wrecks the global economy, they should have the sweet fruits of moral hazard removed from their plates. Then, we can say what Matt Damon said in the film Good Willing Hunting, “How do you like them apples?!?!”

But before that, these Big Shots should be forced to stand in front of the American people (and the world) and write “I Will be Contrite. I Will be Grateful. I Will be Humble.” on the blackboard once for every billion dollars they cost us.