Kids, college, competition

[Bibby]

Everyone, especially young people, needs a push in the right direction from time to time. I actually think I would've benefited from a little more competition when I was in school. However, the "tiger moms" (and tiger dads) who push their kids to the point of mental and physical exhaustion are doing more harm than good. After all, as Cookderosa mentioned, there's no guarantee about what the reward will be for engineering the first two decades of your life just to increase your chance of getting into the "right" school. Extrinsic motivators only take you so far - ultimately, kids need to want to learn for the sake of learning and improving themselves.

Also, the Selingo book sounds rather interesting. I wouldn't mind taking a look at it someday.