Donnelly disses 'dumbed-down' curriculum, says quelling perfectionism a bad move

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Academics, psychologists and educators have spoken out about the need to stamp out perfectionist thinking in students, but could this move be a misguided, potentially harmful one? Will stopping students' drive to ‘get things right’ only dampen ambitious young minds? Will a war against perfectionism work to lower academic expectations, keeping students hostage in a ‘safe’ zone of mediocrity? Dr Kevin Donnelly, Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Catholic University and co-author of the Review of the Australian Curriculum, certainly believes so. In part three of our series on perfectionists, he shares his concerns about why quelling perfectionism in school students will further ensure our international decline and solidify our “it’ll be right” attitude to nailing academic results.