<p>I’ll also add that college admissions people could praise the bright, well-rounded kids (BWRK). Rachel Toor pointed out that, in her opinion, Duke weren’t impressed by BWRKs:
[BOOKS</a> IN BRIEF - NONFICTION - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/30/books/books-in-brief-nonfiction-285099.html]BOOKS”>http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/30/books/books-in-brief-nonfiction-285099.html)</p>
<p>So, it’s a decade later, and we have super-specialists in the pool. Kids who have devoted the last 8 or 10 years of their lives to an interest, with an eye to college admissions. Cool. I predict many will burn out in college, or at least drop the bassoon to write excruciatingly bad poetry.</p>
<p>I would love to see the system give teens a chance to be young. To live life without the Last Judgement hanging over their heads. To not feel as if they’re failures for not getting into Harvard. To give them the space to try new things, rather than to stay in the track laid out in third grade. To allow them to learn.</p>