<p>An interesting read from "The Atlantic" on today's high school students and their parents.</p>
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[quote]
The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids
by Alexandra Robbins</p>
<p>The Drama of the Gifted Parent
A Review by Sandra Tsing Loh</p>
<p>[Ed. Note. This review discusses the contents and context of four books: The Overachievers, The Price of Privelege, Hothouse Kids, and The Kindergarten Wars.]</p>
<p>The frenzy of academic competition, particularly among affluent American families, has triggered a spate of cautionary new books. The titles reviewed here are all excellent: I give them all A+'s -- or, in the parlance of today's elite high schoolers, weighted GPAs of 4.687, including 5's in fifteen AP courses and a combined math/verbal SAT score of 1540.</p>
<p>Of course, I'm a biased reader; in my estimation, there can't be enough books written on the topic. I say, let's hurl them, one by one, at today's frenzied "helicopter parents," who deserve to be, if not bombarded, at least given a simple clonk over the head with a frying pan while a trained therapist yells, "Stop the insanity!"
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</p>
<p><a href="http://www.powells.com/review/2006_10_24%5B/url%5D">http://www.powells.com/review/2006_10_24</a></p>
<p>the HURRIED CHILD from 15 years ago is also a landmark book - basically the same kids at a younger age</p>
<p>as described at amazon.com</p>
<p>"The Hurried Child dates from 1981 and was revised in 1988; now it appears in a third edition. The basic premise remains the same: parents have pushed their children emotionally and intellectually too far, too fast. Today's parents think of their kids as Superkids, so competent and so mature that they need adults very little. Why? Because parents, who are building careers, blending families, or struggling as single parents, have no time for child rearing. Having a competent Superkid relieves these parents of guilt, but it places too much stress on the children themselves."</p>
<p>I WINCED when I read the title of the review, "The Drama of the Gifted Parent." It's a takeoff on the book, "The Drama of the Gifted Child," which is an extraordinary piece of work. But the issue is that "gifted" in this context means empathically and emotionally gifted in the way all children are. It's not about being very intelligent or very talented in some other way.</p>
<p>It's an unfortunate title because it's so badly misinterpreted, and I've had students say that people have treated them rudely when they were seen reading it.</p>
<p>America. Oy vey!</p>