Squished Kids
This is a subject which makes me freakin' nuts and one on which I've done a fair amount of college counseling. You can get a good education anywhere. Getting in to a "name" school matters for your first job, but not at all after that. Having some self-discipline and a decent work ethic matters a whole lot more than an acceptence letter from Harvard. I watch families make themselves sick over this stuff and think "this is madness."
Sick of Expectations
Pressure to Compete, Not Connect, Leaves Many Affluent Teens Miserable, Says a Psychologist and Author
By Sandra G. Boodman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 1, 2006; HE01
Adolescent alienation isn't a new phenomenon. But the unhappy teenagers clinical psychologist Madeline Levine sees in her practice aren't merely going through a developmental phase, she writes.In her new book, "The Price of Privilege" (Harper Collins, $24.95), Levine says that over-involved parents who pressure their children to be stars -- in school, on athletic fields, among their peers -- have created a generation that is "extremely unhappy, disconnected and passive." Unabashedly materialistic and disinterested in the wider world, they are both bored and "often boring," she writes. A large number suffer from depression, anxiety and substance abuse.
Levine, 57, the mother of three sons, draws heavily on her 25 years of clinical experience in Marin County, Calif. Those insights are augmented by interviews with psychiatrists and psychologists around the country, as well as an emerging body of research about the psychological health of children raised in families whose average annual incomes range from $120,000 to $160,000.
Affluent teens, she writes, are among those least likely to receive treatment for emotional problems, because many of their parents are loath to mar the public image of the perfect family.
The middle class are even shovier with their kids, hoping to move them up the socio-economic ladder. I thought the goal was to have kids who grew up to be happy, functional adults?