Raising adolescents in a society that limits options.
If your high school aged students are lucky enough to attend one of our area’s more affluent high schools, you’re familiar with the pressures to excel placed on many students within these schools and how the phrase “failure is not an option” has long been replaced by an attitude of “average is not an option.” What has also become clear in recent years is that it is not so much the unrelenting pressure to succeed that has such a deleterious effect on our teenagers as it is the perception by them that they lack options if they don’t measure up. Failure to attain the highest grades and accomplishments equates to total failure. Where does this message come from? Yes, of course, from parents eager to see their children take advantage of every opportunity. We are all familiar with highly successful adults who were driven to be the best at all costs. Individuals such as Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys or Tiger Woods. Both paid a high price for trading in their childhoods for succes...