This book about the ways in which being over-driven, over-ambitious and over-scheduled is sucking the life out of teenagers may have been novel when it was published, but to my ear it has all been discussed to death already in many other fora. What set this book apart was the individual case studies that Robbins did of students at her Alma Mater, Walt Whitman. Although she refers to them as "Overachievers," it was honestly my opinion that with a couple of exceptions, they were pretty average students, with a small handful of extracurriculars and GPAs in the high 3's. Nonetheless, I found myself drawn to them and their stories.

The researched portions felt pretty redundant and Robbins didn't have much novel to add in them. Also, I found her breathless scare tactics a little dated, given that it's my experience that now that the overachievers are old enough to have kids of our own, it's a huge status symbol to underschedule your kids, put them in play-based preschools or opt out of preschool entirely and not pressure them. Who knows if that'll stick as our kids get older, but certainly the horrors of Baby Einstein and Baby Galileo are remnants of a past era.

I also found that there were some parts that stuck out -- that in the drive to make a point, Robbins just put in everything that sounded like it fit, whether or not it was a good idea. For instance, she complains about summer homework. Summer homework and summer curriculae are the best evidence-based interventions to bridge the gap between lower and upper class students that develops over summers. Similarly, she decries full-day kindergarten, which I see as a necessary invention in the women's liberation movement. I also wish she had talked more about the effects of burnout on long-term career success, which scored only a glancing mention at the end.

Still, I found it a kind of fun and easy to read what was essentially a rant about a topic on which I mostly share the same view.

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A must-read for any parent or teacher of teenagers, especially those parents who either knowingly or unwittingly pressure their child to be hyper-successful. ( )

In this text, Alexandra Robbins writes narratives of American teenagers who are overachievers and its negative effect on American society. For three semesters in the mid-1990s, Robbins follows eight students at Walt Whitman High School through their daily activities. Robbins also discusses the issues that may arise in overachievers such as stress, depression, lying, and even suicide. I often use this text at the mid-year mark for my juniors because they are all thinking about college applications. The novel leads to wonderful debate and discussions about how to "stand out" in the college admission process.
In this unit, I have students write personal narratives, log their activities for a two week period, and finally create a PSA regarding overachieving.

View Film - No Where to Race Trailer: http://www.racetonowhere.com/about-film
Resources:
Talking with Teens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKgCJVVZftw
Over Scheduled Children https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdTKly2m6BM
The Washington Post "Too Few Overachievers" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/20/AR2006082000528.... ( )

I was brought up to be the best in school. My mom would always ask me what my ranking in my class was. I would be reprimanded when I didn't get an A in class. But when I did get an A, that was the end of discussion. High school was a time for me to put work and school first, and a social life last. And where did that land me? In college.

Now, my life differs than many of the predictions that were made in [b:The Overachievers|25575|The Overachievers The Secret Lives of Driven Kids|Alexandra Robbins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167758095s/25575.jpg|1286112]. [a:Alexandra Robbins|14141|Alexandra Robbins|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1296951379p2/14141.jpg] follows the lives of nine students as they work their way through the junior or senior year, many of them working towards that goal of getting into an Ivy League school. That's all that matters, right?

It starts from birth, and for some families, even before birth. We are raised in a culture to survive and beat all the others. We put classical music on mothers' pregnant bellies to enhance the future baby's aptitude for success. We enroll them into prestigious preschools, because if we don't, then they WILL NOT go to college. We drug our kids so that they can take un-timed tests, most of which are designed to test their test-taking skills and not their desire to learn. And they take 22 AP courses in high school to prepare for college, not to mention get a perfect 1600 (back in my day at least) on the SAT. And even then, it's a 8.2% chance to get into that coveted school. But wait...even if they don't get in, you can always sue the school for discrimination.

But let's say they get into that prestigious college that they've had the burden or working towards all their lives? You start over. Because they've been raised by their parents...their oh-so-loving parents who will do everything for them. Even if it's making decisions.

I can go on and on, but you get the picture. Overachievers reads as a microcosm of our culture today, of the way we struggle to be the best at the cost of our own happiness. Whether or not you see this in your own lives, or those around you, I think that there's something we can all learn from this: take a step back from your own life and reflect. If all we strive for is that next best school or career or soul mate, we'll never live our lives in the present.

I'm a stubborn person. When I went to college, I decided to just have fun and enjoy it. I didn't pursue studying engineering or medicine, which is what my mom wanted me to do. I picked a major I liked, and figured I may as well be living in a box after I graduate (I'm not, by the way). And then after graduation, I figured I'd do something completely different...so I went to a foreign country to teach English. Life can be quite unexpected, but I've appreciated every moment of it. I've learned so much about myself and what things in life make me happy. Now I just tell myself that if worse comes to worse and I lose absolutely everything in life...I'll just go back to Korea and teach English. If I'm happy doing it, why not? ( )

This book was pretty fascinating, but I really wonder at what type of school are smart kids considered popular. I was in the top 15 of my HS graduating class and was the biggest nerd in the universe... and the others in the top weren't exactly seen highly by my school's popular cliques. I also think it takes a very wealthy school district to produce so many kids hell bent on an ivy school, unless things have just changed radically in the ~5 years between my HS graduation and when this book was written. Not many people at my high school could afford a 4-year school, much less an ivy. So I'd say this book is definitely not very representative of high schools at large.

Finally, I think it's absurd that parents and kids think their lives will be destroyed if they don't get into these prestigious universities. I went to a great engineering school, but not the best, and a great grad school, but not the best, and I have a great job, and am very happy with what I do. I'm not flipping burgers at McDonalds because I didn't go to Princeton or MIT. ( )