Former Stanford dean explains why helicopter parenting is ruining a generation

Post by arcanus » Sat, Oct 17, 2015, 4:45 PM UTC

lemmsjid wrote: post #61

supercanuck wrote: post #14

You know what. Those parents got those kids into Stanford. Obviously helicopter parenting is working for them. 90% of the decisions people make are based on the environments they are in. Today's environment is extremely competitive and the margin for error is lower. Nobody wants to be the parent of the most mentally stable Starbucks Barista... Get them into Stanford, then they have the rest of their life to "fail"

As a parent, I would a thousand times rather my child be a mentally stable barista than a questionably stable Stanford student. In fact, having recently interacted with the Standard undergraduate body, I feel quite sorry for most of them because it's such a terrible pressure cooker stress environment. My primary goal for my child is for her to be a whole person. If she can do that at Stanford, fine. If she can do tha…

Post by tomphoolery » Sat, Oct 17, 2015, 4:48 PM UTC

wfo wrote: post #90

Dean complains about helicopter parents at Stanford and yet admissions essentially requires incoming students have helicopter parents. To get into a school like this you need to be exclusively focused on exactly the arbitrary criteria that will get you accepted into a school like this -- grades in the "right" classes, enough sports to talk about it in an essay but not too much, extracurricular and volunteer work at t…

Post by aetherson » Sat, Oct 17, 2015, 4:53 PM UTC

tomphoolery wrote: post #94

wfo wrote: post #90

Dean complains about helicopter parents at Stanford and yet admissions essentially requires incoming students have helicopter parents. To get into a school like this you need to be exclusively focused on exactly the arbitrary criteria that will get you accepted into a school like this -- grades in the "right" classes, enough sports to talk about it in an essay but not too much, extracurricular and volunteer work at t…

Unfortunately, his position as a Dean prevents him from getting "too real" in this article, because what he should be telling these over-stressed and over-worked parents (and kids) is that you don't need to go to Harvard, or Stanford, or any Ivy League school really, to get a good education.

Post by seiji » Sat, Oct 17, 2015, 4:55 PM UTC

TelmoMenezes wrote: post #97

seiji wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Margin of error: go to Stanford, make the right connections, become a billionaire in 8 years versus go to a state school and work for the billionaires while making 1/5000th to 1/150000th as much as they do, yet you're doing all the work that makes them richer.

> go to Stanford, make the right connections, become a billionaire in 8 years In my scenario I was implicitly alluding to the real planet Earth.

Post by agumonkey » Sat, Oct 17, 2015, 4:56 PM UTC

riffraff wrote: post #81

TelmoMenezes wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Today's environment is extremely competitive and the margin for error is lower. The margin for error is enormous, compared to previous generations. The probability that a mistake in life will lead you to die of starvation or cold is smaller than ever. What I think is happening is that global communication is leading to increased status neurosis. Before, you could compare your kids to the neighbors'. Now you can com…

> What I think is happening is that global communication is leading to increased status neurosis. A thousand times this. There is also a growing body of research[0] that shows that social media make you feel worse cause you are exposed to a selection of what's good in other people's life. I suspect the same often applies to TV. [0] which I have not read further than the news reports, so might be total bullshit, cavea…