Something to think about. . . . Why are we allowing our children to participate in so many activities? For most parents the answers are:

• To develop character
• To find out what they are good at and then to excel in it
• It will eventually help for college admissions

Marilee Jones, dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has a rare message in the world of elite universities: High school students should enjoy themselves more, and colleges should help them do so.

"They are just doing, doing, doing, and they don't have three minutes to think about what they are doing and why they are doing it," she said. "I feel sad that they don't have the kind of freedom my generation had." MIT applicants now average 12 extracurricular activities in high school while parents have assumed a new and modern role in their children's lives: parent-as-manager.

The Boston Globe article, What's your pleasure? says more:
Jones said her heart goes out to the unhappy high school students she meets who respond with blank stares when she asks "What do you dream about?" She also worries about a sharp rise in the number of high school students admitted to MIT whose grades plummet at the end of their senior year in high school, suggesting either an extreme release of pressure or a spiraling burden of extracurricular obligations.

To discourage students from overloading their lives, MIT's admissions office last year reduced the number of spaces on the form to list extracurricular activities from 10 to six. Many students still attach an extra page to catalog all their activities, but Jones didn't want them to feel as if they had to. This year, Jones removed the column designated for applicants to list the distinctions they earned in each activity.


For more on this subject, read another article:
Quick! Is Johnny signed up for Daydreaming?

Posted by Susan at 1/13/2005 10:03:15 AM | Link