The Overachievers essay
Francesca Colilli
August 18, 2014
Period 3
The Overachievers: the secret life of driven kids.
Student stress is a major theme throughout The Overachievers: the secret life of driven kids. Alexandra Robbins develops this theme by using examples of stress caused by their parents, academics and social lives. Stress is the root to each student’s problems. They are all self-driven, intelligent and have good heads on their shoulders yet they all stress over not being good enough. Whether it is not living up to their parents standards, not getting an all A’s report card or struggling to find themselves they all endure an extremely unhealthy amount of stress.
The main students who suffered through the most parental stress were AP Frank and Ryland. AP Frank’s mother being Asian gives her a strict academic mindset. She pushes Frank so hard often times getting physical with him. She forces him to take all AP classes and does not allow him to “waste” his time being with friends or playing sports. At times when his home life became too stressful Frank would confine in his guidance counselor and have break downs. Eventually Frank’s parental stress alleviated when he went off to Harvard, which allowed him to find himself through experiencing new things and people. Most of the stress Ryland underwent during his junior year was due to his mother’s “never good enough” attitude towards him. Unlike AP Frank, eight AP classes is not something Ryland can handle. It is very easy for him to crumble under pressure and fall behind in his assignments. His mother was never there for him in the right ways, instead for helping with getting back on track she would put him down by saying he “is just not smart enough to get into any college”. Ryland opens up about his home life being so stressful he has cut himself and even contemplated suicide. Parents should be the ones lightening stress from their kids’ shoulders not adding to it.
Academic stress is evident in each student’s lives. This
August 18, 2014
Period 3
The Overachievers: the secret life of driven kids.
Student stress is a major theme throughout The Overachievers: the secret life of driven kids. Alexandra Robbins develops this theme by using examples of stress caused by their parents, academics and social lives. Stress is the root to each student’s problems. They are all self-driven, intelligent and have good heads on their shoulders yet they all stress over not being good enough. Whether it is not living up to their parents standards, not getting an all A’s report card or struggling to find themselves they all endure an extremely unhealthy amount of stress.
The main students who suffered through the most parental stress were AP Frank and Ryland. AP Frank’s mother being Asian gives her a strict academic mindset. She pushes Frank so hard often times getting physical with him. She forces him to take all AP classes and does not allow him to “waste” his time being with friends or playing sports. At times when his home life became too stressful Frank would confine in his guidance counselor and have break downs. Eventually Frank’s parental stress alleviated when he went off to Harvard, which allowed him to find himself through experiencing new things and people. Most of the stress Ryland underwent during his junior year was due to his mother’s “never good enough” attitude towards him. Unlike AP Frank, eight AP classes is not something Ryland can handle. It is very easy for him to crumble under pressure and fall behind in his assignments. His mother was never there for him in the right ways, instead for helping with getting back on track she would put him down by saying he “is just not smart enough to get into any college”. Ryland opens up about his home life being so stressful he has cut himself and even contemplated suicide. Parents should be the ones lightening stress from their kids’ shoulders not adding to it.
Academic stress is evident in each student’s lives. This