Student Stress Part II
Mar 24th, 2008 by Academics Plus Tutoring
Here is the continuation of the interview with Jim Taylor Ph.D.
Dr. Taylor answers a multitude of questions on a variety of topics including teen stress, academic successs and successful parenting techniques. We’ve broken the interview up into sections and will be posting a few of the questions and answers every day. So stay tuned…
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What kind of pressures do parents feel to pressure their children?
Dr. Taylor: There are several levels. First of all, there is the economic pressure that they feel because there’s so much more uncertainty in our economy than there was 20 or 30 years ago. And in, you know, previous generations, kids could be pretty much assured of getting into a decent college, going and then going out into the workforce and finding a stable job. But now there simply aren’t as many of those opportunities. Plus everything costs so much more. Housing alone has skyrocketed all over the country. There are challenges there, so parents have a fundamental fear and concern for their kids’ futures. Plus in our culture now there’s pressure to be great. Kids can’t just be average and be successful. Kids feel that pressure as well.
Is this necessarily a bad thing, that kids are striving for excellence and want to do these great things and are trying so hard academically? Is it a bad thing?
Dr. Taylor: It’s not a bad thing that we want our children to work hard to get good grades to do their best. But unfortunately with pressure now from our culture and from parents is often, for many of the kids, setting expectations that are simply impossible to achieve because they simply don’t have the intelligence or the wherewithal to achieve that level. And so a lot of kids are being left behind. Plus there’s a lot of pressure in terms of simply getting results. The focus now is so much about results and getting As and SATs and in sports winning, that so many kids simply aren’t capable of reaching that level. And if they don’t, well then they’re failures, or they view themselves as being failures.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/. Dr. Jim Taylor is internationally recognized for his work in the psychology of performance in business, parenting, and sport. Jim is an author of ten books, including Positive Pushing: How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child and Your Children are Under Attack: How Popular Culture is Destroying Your Kids’ Values, and How You Can Protect Them. For more information on Dr. Taylor, visit: http://www.drjimtaylor.com/
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