Abeles, Vicki, with Grace Rubenstein. Beyond Measure: Rescuing An Overscheduled, Overtested, Underestimated Generation. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015.

The best things in life can’t be measured. At least that is what I have heard repeatedly and what I think the title of this book is trying to say. Our recent federally mandated attempts in the field of education to apply quantitative measures to work that is both science and art have again fallen short. In the realm of K–12 Christian education, I have heard this response to my urging schools to be more intentional about nurturing faith—“but faith development can’t be measured.” In her New York Times best-selling book, Beyond Measure, Vicki Abeles is sounding a wake-up call to parents and educators: “Let’s acknowledge that the things we are currently measuring are not the most important things in the whole big scope of life. There is a better way.”

Of course, this book caught my eye because I have been advocating that as Christian educators we ought to be leading the way on student flourishing—student outcomes organized around a set of concepts that embody the very best of humanity and what God has created us to be. When students are flourishing, they are experiencing shalom and have the opportunity to bring shalom to others. The way we have set up our teaching and learning systems, however, can directly or indirectly work against our desired outcome of student flourishing. Some schools are in the process of rethinking key questions: What do we believe about how students learn? Is there a better way that is both distinctively Christian and highly meaningful, joyful, and engaging to the student?

So, what in our current system gets in the way of student flourishing? Abeles makes a compelling argument, backed by multiple data points, that our current education system is not only broken, but actually dangerous to kids. She writes with the intensity of a “mama bear,” and out of some personal pain related to the school experiences of her own children and the children of friends. The subjects of her first five chapters have to do with five areas of significant concern in education: student health and well-being, time usage, homework, testing, and college admissions. In her last three chapters, she lays out examples and models of schools working toward student flourishing in various ways.

Consider these concerns she shares in her opening chapter on student health and well-being:

• Kids are more stressed than adults.
• Stress drives one in three kids to sadness and depression.
• Five to eight times more kids in college report serious mental health problems than in the 1950s.
• Suicide rates have doubled since 1950 among 15–24 year olds and tripled among younger children.
• Recent data shows an earlier onset of depression, anxiety, tics, and panic attacks due to stress—now appearing increasingly in elementary-age children.
• One in three parents say scheduled activities make it hard for kids to get the sleep they need.
• Prescription rates for stimulants like Adderall and Ritalin have increased eight times since the 1990s and doubled for teens in the past ten years.
• Stress is impacting all kids, regardless of socio-economic circumstances.
• Today’s students rank 40 percent lower on empathy than kids in the 1970s.

While we may dismiss some of this data by telling ourselves that this doesn’t reflect our student population, we certainly can’t think that our kids are immune.

It is very interesting that Abeles identifies time as being at the heart of all of the other problems mentioned in the book, but also being at the heart of every solution. As I have worked with various schools around the world in recent years, I hear again and again that time is a major issue for students, teachers, and administrators. It is not a matter of our using time efficiently, but as some experts have noted, more a problem of not having very good filters—we simply are not very good at setting and sticking to priorities. Taking the time to set priorities may be the best first step. In some cases, we feel trapped by cultural expectations that dictate our time choices. One friend of mine who lives overseas reported that his son leaves for study sessions at 6 a.m., attends school, and then goes back to study sessions until 11 p.m., arriving home to fall into bed exhausted; then he repeats the cycle all over again the next day. The goal of this effort is for the student to get a high score on a national test so he can attend a prestigious college. Unless we make corrections, North American society seems headed in this extreme direction.

Time choices, of course, reflect our values. Abeles suggests that what we are currently valuing in our schools is speed, uniformity, and quantity as opposed to depth, individuality, and quality. Current educational time choices may result in higher test scores, but they also result in loss of creativity and executive function. What the author calls the “youth sport vortex” is a major culprit of overly full schedules, not to mention high rates of repetitive use injuries. Sometimes schools are the largest contributor to the problem, given the amount of hours students are involved in various aspects of school life.

While I have dipped ever so briefly in this review into only two of the chapters (on well-being and time), the author makes equally compelling arguments around homework, testing, and college admissions. All of these chapters would certainly merit their own attention in a book study. I felt weary after reading them, but fortunately the author intersperses positive examples of helpful change that is happening.

I share the author’s frustration with how slow U.S. schools have been to adapt to new models. What is exciting to me is that I see more and better models available for schools to consider today than even five years ago. We now have a growing number of Christian educators who have been teaching differently and a growing number of school models that show significant change of philosophy and practice. What more will it take? The evidence is mounting for the need to change. In the meantime we have too many kids going through the motions. I believe it is a sin to squander their minds and talents if they disengage from the learning process!

Abeles advocates for an educational experience that develops qualities and skills that allow students to flourish, “the whole child—social, emotional, physical, spiritual, and cognitive—and not just the one-dimensional student.” According to a 2013 UNICEF report, the U.S. is twenty-fifth out of twenty-nine affluent countries in overall child well-being; adolescents rated their life satisfaction lower than their peers in the bottom third; and the U.S. was second to the worst on kid’s rankings of their own relationships, (with such factors as the kindness of classmates and ease of talking to parents). This should not be acceptable.

The book closes with twelve concrete suggestions for educators and parents. I would heartily recommend this book to you for your own learning, but I think it would be even more powerful to discuss chapters with others in a book study group. The author produced a movie, Race to Nowhere, based on the book of the same title; likewise, there are currently screenings available of the movie Beyond Measure, based on this book. More information can be found at <beyondmeasurefilm.com>.

In my estimation the positive education/deeper learning approach outlined in this book as a response to current problems of the educational system is about as close as one can come to practicing biblical truths in a public school without being explicit. The approach advocated in Beyond Measure will also align well with the values Christian teachers bring to their work in public schools—valuing each child as image-bearer and seeking their flourishing. The joy that Christian educators can bring in a Christian school situation is to be able to reveal and explore the truth behind a deeper learning philosophy and openly to encourage students to seek God, worship, and serve through the aspects of wonder, wisdom, and work.

This past November, there was a gathering in Chicago of Christian school representatives and individuals interested in a deeper level of student engagement in the learning process. We came to the strong conclusion that student engaged, deeper learning models of teaching and learning were not only better in the long-term for kids, but that they reflect more fully what we deeply believe about God creating human beings in the divine image. If you would like more information about this network advocating deeper learning in Christian schools, please feel free to contact me directly.

Dan Beerens is an educational consultant whose mission is to strengthen K–12 Christian day school education. He can be contacted at DB Consulting at <www.danbeerens.com/>.