Tales of Success (not guaranteed)
The Bay Area is dominated by immigrant parents eager for their children to begin the first step of the American Dream: a diploma from an elite university. At the same time, said institutions have become more and more selective in their admissions. The competitiveness of college admissions is heightened by the close proximity students are in. When your fiercest competition is doing English homework next to you, there is no escape from the inevitable comparison of college applications. And when your parents are asking why your SAT scores don’t measure up to your friend’s, or why your volunteering isn’t as flashy as Jackie’s cancer research, it seems that everyone is making more progress than you. Fueling the fire are the college prep schools, college counselors, and cram schools — each costing upwards of thousands of dollars — that guarantee to “increase your score by 100 points!” and had “15 Harvard students last year!” Extreme parental expectations, environmental pressure, and constant comparison culminate in a stressful, grueling environment for young adults to grow and mature in. In a life centered around college admissions and elitism, mental health has declined for students in the Bay Area.
The push and pull between hard work and mental health for students is not new — and some would argue not entirely bad either. The long-standing argument for hard work originates in love and human nature: every parent wants a better life for their child. In our current society, higher education is a sure path to the American Dream. A few years of hard work is a petty sacrifice for a glorious, white-picket fence future. It is the very heart of the American Dream: hard work pays off. If students aren’t putting in the effort, the fruits of their labor (or lack of) will reflect that. Along the same lines, the pressure applied to high school students is understandable. Furthermore, competition between peers is healthy, and encourages students to push themselves to success.
The student narrative tells a much different story. The high pressure and competitive environment of the Bay Area push many children to their breaking point, making it easy to fall prey to distraction and loss of control. It is important to remember that high school is not just a pivotal time for academics, but also one for mental and physical development. High schoolers are children. They are still learning about the world and themselves. They are still making important mistakes and deciding what kind of person they want to become after those mistakes. It takes a village to raise a child. And the Bay Area has become a domineering, hostile one for its children. The parent narrative of hard work overlooks the problems extreme pressure creates for their children. It forgets their children aren’t blank slates getting readied for a shiny diploma. Most importantly, it forgets their children are children.
In other words, parents’ preoccupation with a successful future distracts the pressing problem of mental health and psychological impact of the present. As a result, Bay Area students are so focused on becoming successful adults that we forget to be successful children.
