In a recent essay for The Boston Globe, writer and mother Kara Baskin cheers on a new trend among parents who choose to step back from demanding academic perfection from their kids and over-scheduling them with tutoring, music lessons, and other enrichment activities.
Now, in the wake of a mental health crisis among youth, a changing economy, and parental exhaustion, mothers and fathers are deemphasizing so many of these activities and lightening the pressure on their kids to enter an Ivy League. Speaking for these parents, Baskin declares, “We are tired, our kids are stressed out, and our values have changed.”
As an Advanced Placement English teacher and a father, as well as a millennial who grew up in the midst of the so-called “Mommy Wars,” in which mothers (primarily those who worked and those who stayed at home) had innumerable arguments over the best way to raise children, I would agree with at least one of Baskin’s points.
She’s right that parents and their children have become less interested in crafting the perfect college resume and are instead looking to minimize the cost of higher education and maximize its utility. I can attest that my students have shown far more interest in vocational programs now than they did when I started teaching 15 years ago. And there’s thankfully much less social stigma attached to opting out of a four-year university and choosing to earn an associate’s degree at a community college and enter a trade.
However, I
