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Is the Drive for Success Making Our Children Sick?

nytimes.com

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Re: Is the Drive for Success Making Our Children Sick?

#81

Post by nradov »

jtcond13 wrote: post #71

"hours of nightly homework, daily sports practice and band rehearsal..." Maybe adults should stop telling teenagers that their performance in these things matters that much? Sports / Music are great if you enjoy them, and learning the high school curriculum is important, but outside of the top 1%, there's little reason to compete in these tournaments.

The theory is that participation in sports and music will be the crucial factor that gets those teenagers admitted to elite colleges. There's some truth to that, but probably not quite as much as many parents seem to think.

Re: Is the Drive for Success Making Our Children Sick?

#82

Post by tnecniv »

analog31 wrote: post #68

Many of the posts have to do with the expectations of business, society, etc. Maybe we parents have something to do with it too. I should be happy. I'm educated, have interesting and rewarding work to do, have a roof over my head, and get to play music on the side. I've got two great kids, who are both smarter than me. What's wrong with that? Why should I be neurotic about success? Why should push myself and my kids…

> I recently found a copy of my 12th grade public school math textbook. More than half of the problems are proofs. Today there are no proofs.

This was a big issue for me when I entered college. We did proofs freshman year of high school as part of geometry, but they were so simplistic that I didn't know how to write a good, real proof. Then, when I got to college math, I struggled for a long while figuring out what I needed to do to properly prove something rigorously.

Re: Is the Drive for Success Making Our Children Sick?

#83

Post by beccasanchez »

branchless wrote: post #77
beccasanchez wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all of history, the elite have never been more secure. They've never had anything close to the level of surveillance and policing as today. The police today are literally thousands of times more effective at their job than the time of the French Revolution. No one with a clue is worried about anything "abrupt". Rebellion is literally impossible.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots Did they put guns on Big Dog since 2011? What's changed? Good old UK had to stop the press reporting on it they were so flustered.

That riot in no way threatened the existence of the state, or the privileges of the elite.

Your example proves my point. There is nothing to fear from the poor. They are completely checked and have no access to power whatsoever.

Re: Is the Drive for Success Making Our Children Sick?

#84

Post by [deleted] »

ericd wrote: post #79
zepto wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't add up. If rent is so much higher than purchase plus upkeep, people will borrow money and buy, safe in the knowledge that they can just become a landlord and be cash-flow positive at any time. Or investors will simply buy the cheap properties and rent them. The demand for investment properties will drive up the purchase price and parity will be reached. This is why house prices are just as insane in Sili…

How about increasingly higher property tax rates for 2nd, 3rd, etc. properties? Also, getting rid of the CA law that sets property tax assessment value at time of purchase would help increase liquidity a lot, as it no longer makes sense to let land sit unproductively as you wait for it to appreciate.

[deleted]

Re: Is the Drive for Success Making Our Children Sick?

#85

Post by bthallplz »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #58
douche wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time this comes up, the answer I see trotted out is that increased land taxes will cause land prices to fall and rents will get cheaper. I don't understand how this makes any sense, at all. If the town raises the property taxes on my rental, guess what, the rent is going to go up at least as much as the tax increase.

> I don't understand how this makes any sense, at all. If the town raises the property taxes on my rental, guess what, the rent is going to go up at least as much as the tax increase. This is only true if the rent is based on the cost of the unit in terms of purchase price and upkeep. That's true in lower cost-of-living areas, but in expensive areas, the rent is high primarily because demand is outstripping supply, n…

I do not understand your last sentence. I am assuming that if the increases in cost were not passed onto renters, they would be absorbed by the landlords themselves, which harms the landlords' profit margins. What incentive would landlords have to willfully cut into their profit margins vs. passing the increases on to the renters?

Re: Is the Drive for Success Making Our Children Sick?

#86

Post by dilap »

icanhackit wrote: post #42

Expectations surrounding education have spun out of control. On top of a seven-hour school day, our kids march through hours of nightly homework, daily sports practices and band rehearsals, and weekend-consuming assignments and tournaments. Each activity is seen as a step on the ladder to a top college, an enviable job and a successful life. Small-print: Successful life not guaranteed. Neither is happiness but we did…

Sounds cool. Where do you get money? Don't care about kids?

Re: Is the Drive for Success Making Our Children Sick?

#87

Post by wingsonfire »

analog31 wrote: post #68

Many of the posts have to do with the expectations of business, society, etc. Maybe we parents have something to do with it too. I should be happy. I'm educated, have interesting and rewarding work to do, have a roof over my head, and get to play music on the side. I've got two great kids, who are both smarter than me. What's wrong with that? Why should I be neurotic about success? Why should push myself and my kids…

I think every parent has same concern - middle class is vanishing, normal degree will not be enough, etc.. I have read in one of the book "65 percent of children entering grade school this year will end up working in careers that haven't even been invented yet" (I know data science is consider new field, it is just derivation of CS).

At the same time, if we feel our kids are smarter they should be able to figure out their way out if they have good basic skills ( leadership, teamwork, co-ordination, communication, passion etc).. So we as society should focus on such skills and not expect every kid to make multi billion company out of college room..

Re: Is the Drive for Success Making Our Children Sick?

#88

Post by atomicfiredoll »

ryandrake wrote: post #67
atomicfiredoll wrote: post #10

I can't help but feel like this is the inevitable conclusion for a society that's obsessed with working and financial success. It could be an interesting premise to explore. When a number of employers and the government don't value ensuring a healthy work/life balance, or even employee's health, how do you keep that same behavior out of the minds of people running school systems and classrooms? How do you ensure you…

Funny, because an obsession with work is at odds with an obsession with financial success--they have nothing to do with one another. While hard work may help make one incrementally better off than the Joneses, when it comes to actual financial success, luck and family connections play a much bigger role. The whole "hard work makes you successful" narrative only furthers the interests of the already successful.

Sorry. I didn't mean to necessarily imply that the financial successful ones always going to the ones working the long hours. (Although, some do work hard in hopes of it.) My intent was to partially indict financial philosophies or entities so focused on success that they pressure and use workers in less than savory ways.

Re: Is the Drive for Success Making Our Children Sick?

#89

Post by branchless »

beccasanchez wrote: post #83
branchless wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots Did they put guns on Big Dog since 2011? What's changed? Good old UK had to stop the press reporting on it they were so flustered.

That riot in no way threatened the existence of the state, or the privileges of the elite. Your example proves my point. There is nothing to fear from the poor. They are completely checked and have no access to power whatsoever.

They can go further. IMHO jury is out.

Re: Is the Drive for Success Making Our Children Sick?

#90

Post by branchless »

bthallplz wrote: post #85
TulliusCicero wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't understand how this makes any sense, at all. If the town raises the property taxes on my rental, guess what, the rent is going to go up at least as much as the tax increase. This is only true if the rent is based on the cost of the unit in terms of purchase price and upkeep. That's true in lower cost-of-living areas, but in expensive areas, the rent is high primarily because demand is outstripping supply, n…

I do not understand your last sentence. I am assuming that if the increases in cost were not passed onto renters, they would be absorbed by the landlords themselves, which harms the landlords' profit margins. What incentive would landlords have to willfully cut into their profit margins vs. passing the increases on to the renters?

See the other reply. You need to do some reading.
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