Guest Author - Lorel Shea
“The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids” is an eye opening book by Alexandra Robbins, a graduate of Yale University. Her aim is to disclose current trends which encourage kids of all ages to “do it all” often at the cost of their own mental and physical health. Free time for kids has evaporated as competitive parents sign their kids up for one program after another, and expect their children to excel in assorted sports, music, and other extracurriculars, in addition to academics. Consequently, by the time these kids get to high school, they have lived with many years of intense pressure. Students at ultra-competitive high schools are surviving on limited sleep, abusing stimulants, having panic attacks before exams, cramming for SATs, managing insane schedules, and trying their best to smile and look happy no matter what.
In order to reacquaint herself with the high school pressure cooker, Robbins spent a year shadowing the academic elite at her old high school, Walt Whitman in Maryland. She introduces us to memorable students such as “AP Frank”, a boy who took 17 advanced placement courses in high school while he struggled to separate from a controlling parent and establish himself as a whole person with interests outside of academics. Other subjects brought to life as case studies include Ryland, “the slacker”, Taylor, “the popular girl”, Julie, “the superstar”, Sam “the teacher's pet”, Audrey, “The perfectionist”, and a mysterious student known as “The stealth overachiever”. We follow these kids through months of college acceptances and rejections, issues with parents, social affairs, and more.
This book is primarily concerned with the “in” crowd at Whitman, but also delves into the frenzy of New York City kindergarten admissions, issues with college admissions, and interviews with overextended teens across the US. Particularly interesting is the final section of the book, which contains suggestions for what schools, colleges, counselors, parents,and students can do to take things down a notch and stop the crazy cycle of competition that has been linked to suicide, murder, drug abuse, and depression. (Yes, murder, for example, the mother who killed the mother of her daughter's cheerleading rival!)
This is a fascinating read which I hope will inspire parents to reexamine the messages they give to their gifted and high ability children.
