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A self-correcting problem, since the next generation of kids will be left to fend for themselves by their helpless, helicoptered parents. :)
Uh, I think there are other schools ... and by the way they all use the same textbooks. Maybe the problem is American credentialism?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What a false dichotomy: Stanford or life as a service worker. Both Google and YC have stopped focusing on college prestige in their hiring/acceptance, because it wasn't a particularly strong indicator of success. I would much rather send healthy kids to a state school or liberal arts college than unhealthy kids to Stanford.
Better to be a Harvard dropout (Zuckerberg) than have a CS degree from Humboldt State.
What's your point? That being an enormous outlier is sometimes a great thing?
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.
> become a billionaire in 8 years versus go to a state school and work for the billionaires If the only thing that matters in life is how much money you make, this might be relevant. Otherwise, working for those billionaires as a college grad isn't that bad.
Nothing wrong with having no ambition, but step to the right so better people can pass you by.
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…
This. It is like that old adage, "Behind every great man, there is a great woman." For the modern era, it should perhaps now be, "behind every top-tier university student, there is a helicopter parent". It takes so much to get into one of these schools now that it seems impossible for any child without extensive support.
Now we have MOOCs an schools can become centers for socializing, tutoring and testing. A great teacher can educate more than 300 people a year this way.
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"
And personally, I'd be proud to be the parent of the world's most mentally stable barista because life is about more than status.
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…
There is a difference between being a demanding parent and being a helicopter parent. A demanding parent sets high expectations and offers support, but the kid must bring their own motivation and effort. A helicopter parent not only sets high expectations but does the work for the student to make sure they are met. The classic example is the parent who goes into the school and harangues the teacher when their student…
> A demanding parent communicates their disappointment with their kid, not the teacher. A demanding parent lets their kid fail and then delivers consequences.
What makes parent a problem is how high the demands he/she sets and how severe are the consequences.
As someone with children and living in NY, my wife and I are very aware of not trying to push our kids in a specific direction or to interfeer too much if they are having trouble solving something themselves. The problem once we start coaching our kids in an early age is that we are denying them to find a lot of subtle things out on their own. It's very easy to think you are helping your kids to learn by removing wha…
I grew up with parents who worked all the time and barely took part in their childrens lives. We cook dinner by ourselves a majority of the time. My 10 year old brother has to mow the lawn and do his own laundry. We get yelled at all the time like in the first column of the comics. At first I felt mad for it but now I'm realizing the benefits. I can take care of myself so well. I can cook, I keep my room clean, and I…
> My 21 year old friend has had his parents take a big part in his life. He has upper middle class parents who watch his every move, sign him up for SAT tutors, force him to take piano lessons. Has no clue how to cook, found freshman year comp sci too hard and switched to communications
Having parents who take a big part of your life has no bearing on whether or not you'll do well at Comp Sci 101.
> Probably will depend on his dad's connections to get an office job.
After your first job out of college, subsequent jobs are found based on your "connections." That's networking.
Also learning to cook isn't difficult. It just takes practice.