The Economist recently published The model minority is losing patience, which shared the story of Michael Wang:
MICHAEL WANG, a young Californian, came second in his class of 1,002 students; his ACT score was 36, the maximum possible; he sang at Barack Obama’s inauguration; he got third place in a national piano contest; he was in the top 150 of a national maths competition; he was in several national debating-competition finals. But when it came to his university application he faced a serious disappointment for the first time in his glittering career. He was rejected by six of the seven Ivy League colleges to which he applied.
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Go Ahead and Let Your Tween Dress "Slutty" for Halloween - Just Make Her Build the Costume Herself10/2/2015
A few months ago, I wrote that, by 1979 standards, your first-grader is probably emotionally and physically stunted. Indeed, according to education expert Louise Bates Ames, Ph.D., here are the 1979 prerequisites for 1st grade:
1. Will your child be six years, six months or older when he begins first grade and starts receiving reading instruction?
Attention everyone: The Happy Talent (and Paved With Verbs) is in YourTango! I recently wrote 4 Reasons A Tutor is the WORST Thing You Can Do For Your Child -- and it's all based on my master's research and experience as a college admissions counselor and life coach.
Here's the gist of it -- there are four very powerful psychological reasons why your student shouldn't have a tutor. Unless, of course, they're legitimately struggling in an academic subject and need the extra help.
This week, The Atlantic published The Coddling of the American Mind: How Trigger Warnings Are Hurting Mental Health on Campus. Obviously, I agreed wholeheartedly -- I am all about the interpersonal basis for abnormal psychology. I've written all about developing resilience and coping skills in high school and college students.
Besides, it's basically the exact same thing I said about little girls and body image when the well-meaning parents and educators threw a big, fat hissy fit over the size of Lily James's waist when the Cinderella trailer came out last March. My, how the world has changed!
We've all heard about how difficult it is to get children into "the best" preschools these days -- how you basically have to get your kid on "the list" when you're still pregnant. And, of course, we've all heard parents brag about how many numbers, letters, and words their impossibly-young-year-old knows. In fact, a lot of kindergartens now recommend that kids know letters, numbers, and even basic addition and subtraction before the start of the school year (meaning kids show up having learned fractions). Which, in this psychologist's opinion, is counterproductive. The best way to give your child a creative, entrepreneurial mind has nothing to do with flashcards. But we'll discuss this more later. That's not how it used to be! Here's a checklist to see whether your child is ready for first grade, taken from Your Six-Year-Old: Loving and Defiant, by Louise Bates Ames, Ph.D., in 1979:
Do kids in your neighborhood play outside every day? Or do they, like the average American child, spend up to eight hours per day in front of a screen? (In other words... they sleep, eat, go to school, and not much else.) Using some technology is great -- it can be fun, relaxing and even educational. But, when used excessively, it kills creativity and curiosity. It prevents kids from developing crucial social and emotional intelligence. It makes them bored... and it makes them boring.
Moreover, unsupervised outdoor play is one of the most important ways in which kids develop social and emotional skills, like resilience (something most kids with helicopter don't learn these days, which is one of the reasons that something like 15% of kids are being medicated for depression, and some 33% have reported feeling "too depressed to function"), self-regulation (a skill that is highly correlated with good grades, higher test scores, higher lifetime earning potential, lower incarceration rates, etc. etc. etc.), emotional intelligence, charisma, negotiation and leadership skills, autonomy and independence, and more. When the Goblet of Fire spat out Harry Potter's name, the Boy Who Lived knew he was in trouble. He was competing against people who were bigger, stronger and more experienced at magic than he was -- in situations that were literally life-or-death. On the eve of the first challenge -- the dragons -- Professor Moody gave Harry the best advice anyone's ever given anyone:
My heart broke today when I learned about yet another teen suicide in Palo Alto. Looking through the comments on the article, as well as notes from recent community forums, it's clear that many parents and students in the PAUSD want to cap the number of APs a student can take -- or even eliminate APs altogether.
I haven't decided if that's a good idea or not. But, through my experience working and studying with admissions officers at Stanford, as well as working as a college admissions counselor, I have decided one thing: Let me start out by saying, in the words of MacArthur Genius and UPenn Professor Angela Ducksworth: People differ from one another on innumerable dimensions. Many traits follow a bell-shaped, or normal, distribution. Height, for instance. There are outliers, yes, but, even the very tallest man in the world is – at 8 foot 5 inches - only 1/3 taller than the average man. I'm not posting this to disparage your child's chances of success (though a little expectation management never hurt anyone). I'm posting it to help you help them maximize their chances for achievement and success.
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Eva is a content specialist with a passion for play, travel... and a little bit of girl power. Read more >
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