> But I think it's important to maintain a healthy appreciation for the artifice of it all
I don't think it's artifice. If you want to get into the best universities, you have to have perfect grades and stand out. I think the culture being described in Palo Alto is a direct function of that.
You can raise happy, well-adjusted, non-jerk kids, but they won't get into good schools, because they won't sacrifice literally everything in high school.
Your choice: well-adjusted kids or getting into good universities, not both.
I think it's horrible that this is the situation---we need to reform university admissions.
My idea would be to have an over-achievement threshhold, above which students won't get accepted.
I had a perfect GPA in high school, and that's because there was something profoundly wrong with me.
To be fair, I haven't tried to get into a good school recently, so my perspective may be out of date. But I don't think perfect grades actually stand out at all. Doing something noteworthy because you are following your passion however would. I also think there is ample opportunity for really smart people to do incredible things without going to a "good" school. Honestly, university is not a goal, it is a means towards your later life, and it gets less and less important as you live your life. If my kids find something they care about and follow it early, I would not be disappointed at all if they never went to college.
Yeah, part of the problem is perfect grades no longer stand out much. Top tier colleges continually turn away students with perfect grades and very high test scores.
I have nieces and nephews that age, and from what I can tell getting in to a good college is an unpaid full time job now. Instead of working part time at McDonald's summers for spending money, these kids are being pushed to do things like create nonprofits for whatever "social justice" fad is in this year, or spending a month feeding people in Haiti.
That kind of stuff is fine if the drive is coming from within, but I would sure as hell have chafed at being forced into sainthood at age 16 in order to have a chance at being accepted to an Ivy.
During the school year, getting into a good college is much more than a full time job. It's an "all the time" job (except sleeping). And by "good college" I don't mean Ivy League, I also mean the next tier down.
Good grades no longer stand out... but not having good grades stands out! So you have to have excellent grades.
I don't think it's artifice. If you want to get into the best universities, you have to have perfect grades and stand out. I think the culture being described in Palo Alto is a direct function of that.
You can raise happy, well-adjusted, non-jerk kids, but they won't get into good schools, because they won't sacrifice literally everything in high school.
Your choice: well-adjusted kids or getting into good universities, not both.
I think it's horrible that this is the situation---we need to reform university admissions.
My idea would be to have an over-achievement threshhold, above which students won't get accepted.
I had a perfect GPA in high school, and that's because there was something profoundly wrong with me.