Kuala Lampur, May 30 -- The SPM results are out. In one household, shrieks of joy echo as parents hug their straight-A child. In another, the same silence that follows disappointment settles like a heavy fog. We all know the platitudes that follow this ritual. "SPM is not the end." "It's not the final determinant of your future." We recite them like a mantra, pointing to the titans of industry and the self-made millionaires who barely scraped through their school-leaving exams. These stories are true, and they are necessary. No one's identity should be crushed by a grade for Sejarah or a near-fail in Mathematics.

But in our eagerness to soothe the pain of disappointment, we risk normalising a far more dangerous trend: the quiet, voluntar...