What?
see post 56
I have read the book and think it a useful antidote to the narrow, instrumental focus on ECs, APs, etc., that characterizes the college admissions and prep world in many places, including cc. For kids immersed in a school culture that emphasizes that approach, this book is a good contrarian view with useful advice. However, I do think kids need to be aware that it does not fundamentally question the ‘game’ that the college admissions process has become for many, in which ‘success’ is defined by admission to an elite, highly selective school. It simply suggests a different way of playing that game, one that might lead to more ‘success’. I would have preferred more time spent questioning whether kids should be playing this game at all. (the author is clear about excluding this, and why). Much of the advice is good in and of itself though, as long as readers take it that way. One example of what I find to be a rather narrow view: one student is described who found she could spend less time on athletics if she worked out on her own rather than join the school team. This is described as a good choice, which freed her up to do other, self-directed things. That’s fine if her only reason for joining a team was to pad her EC list. But we shouldn’t pretend that going on a run every day is the same as joining the xc team, or that the same sort of running, social, or character building benefits can be had that way. In this case, admissions seemed to be the primary factor when figuring roi, rather than long term character development.
update to this thread:
We offered our freshman student the choice of reading this book and discussing each chapter with mom and dad OR taking a study skills class offered in our area for a couple hours/day – one week long class. There is nothing else scheduled (besides band) the rest of the summer so time stretches on here. Many people take the study skills class or something even more intense offered at the private school down the road so that would not be unusual. Friend of student is taking two weeks of all day math prep for example.
Student chose to read and discuss the high school superstar book…so we discussed chapters 1 and 2. in the car on the way to grandparents house, of course, where else do serious discussions take place? student’s first comment? “it’s repetitive”…well Dad and I agree. There was some heated discussion (but kid was definitely engaged), we clarified our purpose in student reading it (which is to have a less frantic high school schedule-- the “relaxed” part of relaxed superstar) and we ended with a very interesting discussion of “top ten things i would like to do or learn about it college” and also “bottom ten things i would never want to do in college or as a job”. Trust me this very fascinating list would not have been generated without the discussion as a prompt.
I’ll update as we go through the book. It’s interesting that the thread mentions sons and daughters. just to clarify, I never did state which of those my student is… does that make a difference? difficult to tell with a sample of one.
another update following our discussion of section 1 of the superstar book…our student now wants to modify the upstairs of the house to reflect new plans for studying…be careful what you wish for, parents! in general the experience is going well. the plan is to finish the entire discussion before school starts the last week of august.