My latest obsession (besides the life of Thomas Jefferson) has been the book, “The Overachievers” by Alexandra Robbins. It’s a book about the secret arms race among high-schoolers to be active in every minute aspect in the great hopes that it will land them a coveted admission to Harvard, Yale, Princeton.
To recap what I’ve learned so far, here are the basic points:
Anyways, I was talking to my dad today and the topic of this book came up (because the author happened to attend Walt Whitman high school, which she heavily profiled in her book; Whitman happens to be in the same county in which I grew up).
It was interesting because I wanted to hear what he had to say about the book. True — my personal story was nowhere near as horrible as what I’ve been reading, but at the same time, some of the stories I read hit *WAAAY* too close to home for me.
My dad was actually familiar with the book, as he’d seen Robbins on TV recently, promoting her book. He commented that it was amazing the number of kids who were suicidal, has serious psychological problems, drug abuse problems, etc., because of all this pressure. If he only knew the people I knew in high school, he wouldn’t have been particularly shocked.
A lot of people will read this and simple comment, “BS, the real world is full of pressure, so these kids should get used to it,” which I think is a completely rubbish argument. We don’t let 15 years old drink, vote, and drive cars, and people do all of those things in the real world. The reality is that teenagers are *NOT* adults, and that’s why we, based on millions of years of experience, choose to limits their rights and responsibilities. If you think your 15 year old is ready for 80 hour work weeks, then you should have no problem handing him/her a beer, or letting him get behind the wheel of your car, or getting blown up by iraqi insurgents because hey — that’s what we all deal with in the real world.