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[GenXer]

I think the premise is flawed.

Most immune hs parents have their kids pass all of the exams, SAT, subject tests, etc, etc, spend tons of time padding their 'resumes', and in the end, what do they get?

An entry into a mediocre liberal arts college, some of them costing $50k a year, and some possibly having a 'big' name. At the age of 22, most of these kids graduate without any skills whatsoever, and then? MBA? Waiting tables?

As I said, none of this makes any sense, if you look critically at what this path accomplishes.

I'd much rather have a path that goes like this: start teaching your kids so that they can read/write by age 5 or 6. Thefeafter, they can breeze through the school curriculum in several years. By the time they are 15 or 16, they can take community college classes (Mass Bay, Harvard, whatever). Then by the time they are 20 they'll graduate with a bachelor's degree. No waste of time on standardized tests. No fighting for admission. Basically, do a 'transfer'. First 2 years are cheap, The only real cost may be the last 2 years, but with a motivated student, that shouldn't be a problem.

Another thing to do would be summer courses at a community college. Those are a quick and easy way to satisfy some requirements that you don't want to waste time on. This way they can graduate by the time they are 18 or 19.

Most kids nowadays have 0 work experience, and end up wasting time in college. If you are 18 or 19, you can work a couple of years, possibly earn some money and/or experience, and then hit graduate school. You can end up with a Masters degree or a tradel icense by the time most kids get out of college. Now that's a big head start.

[Kaidran]

The way people are talking it seems nobody actually thinks that after school activities have any inherent value outside of resume padding. Also no HS student would take them just because they enjoyed doing it.

GenXer your plan seems very comprehensive I am reluctant to make such detailed plans for my girls, Id rather see how they develop and fit the plan to that.

I think most people do have some work experience, an internship is very common as resume padding (again assuming that it has no inherent value).

Since I went through the UK system (I was not super fast but I did not delay) I got my PhD at 25. I actually had a hard time getting people to take me seriously at that time because I did not have the resume people were expecting and was obviously much younger than people expected (I did have 2 industrial placements though).

[Kaidran]

As for the "me" generation. I completely see a big crunch because of unfunded Medicare obligations. How that is sorted out will likely set the tone for the next few decades.

I think that it will have to herald some return to valuing real, productive work. Those people with the disposition for that should thrive.

[john p]

Kadrian: My wife and I don't have kids yet, but I feel that I'd be torn between your outlook and GenXer's.

On the one hand you need to let your kid figure out where they wanted to fit in to the world and to be exposed to great minds contemporary and those that came before us as well as see a bit of the world.

The reason why I think GenXer is partial right is that unlike in years past, college is unbelieveably expensive. The stories of the girl who goes to Wellesley College, studies art and then lives in Greenwich Village days are over, unless she has wealthy parents who bankroll her. It is almost unfair to allow your kids to saddle themselves with that much debt while they still are mentally "wanting to be a fireman when they grow up". Think about how before they really find themselves they're bonded with debt that will just prevent themselves from getting a chance to find themselves. Freedom from debt is a big deal.

It is a tough decision as a parent to decide to give their kid every opportunity or to shield them from being enslaved to debt...

[john p]

Oh, how about how our society is so friggin soft that we have to subsidize 26 year old CHILDREN in the Health Care Bill. I mean the 26 year old living in the basement playing PlayStation 2 can get themselves a couple of jobs and a work ethic. This is ridiculous. Does the 18 year old kid in the Military need a permission slip to take on a dangerous mission?

[Boston ITer]

[Boston ITer]

[Kaidran]

I dont doubt that the drive for differentiation is extreme, just more that if you homeschool it becomes harder for kids to have those sort of developmental opportunities with their peers. Like rolling there eye with a classmate over the infighting on the editorial team. Or speaking out on an issue they care about in an environment that is "safer" than in the big wide world.

The counselors are just that counselors, they will give you information on the best way to frame things or to give you the best chance but they cannot order the kids to become captain or editor. But again we come back to the idea that HS is only there to get kids to Harvard, which I dont agree with.

John: The situation is very simple for us, if they want to get to Harvard they'll need to get a scholarship to pay for it. I think when you are competing with the guys with famous uncles, unless you are gifted enough to get a scholarship you are not going to succeed there anyway. I'd rather see them shine at UMASS than be invisible at an Ivy league. My guess is that tuition costs will have to come down though because the current path it completely unsustainable without jobs to go into at the end.

[john p]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa_Smile

I think at Harvard a very large percentage of their applicants are not only Valedictorians but also Class Presidents.

The idea is that not only do they have intellectual skill, but have the ability to persuade, magnify others, and get them to follow.

In my MBA we watched a video of a Harvard MBA class doing a case study of a company that made the "skillsaws". Each kid had a totally different approach so it wasn't as if one solution was clear. The one reedeming quality was that each kid had the ability to talk a cat down off a fish truck.

Think about it, we've got a Harvard President who has the ability to convince a decent percentage of the population that you get out of debt by spending more money and you take an industry that is on an unsustainable course and you make it more costly; and then you take people who were caught asleep at the switch and you promote them with all kinds of new powers. This is the Harvard Advantage. Lawrence Summers embodies the Harvard Advantage. He pissed away billions and billions of Harvard's endowment (much of which was HANDED to them) and now he's setting the course of our Nation, not to mention that he promoted the Commodities Futures Modernization Act under Clinton which allowed for derivatives and credit default swaps. Go Crimson!!!!!!!

VERITAS!!!

[Boston ITer]

[Kaidran]

I could take Northeastern instead of UMASS, the point is the same.

The application process just seems dysfunctional in general. I miss England. Three As at A-Level spoke to any university. Sports were actually played because they were fun, here it seems only because you have plans to go pro or prove you are rounded.

Anyway, I go back to my point that the future will value people that are actually capable of productive work. All the bullsh*t framing will only go so far.

[Boston ITer]

[Kaidran]

I would argue more that a country can only sustain itself so long without actually making something real.

[john p]

I share you frustration, but the truth is that the people who are artists in self promotion ARE getting ahead big time.

In most environments people "Get found out", but this has been an extended bubble of control of the lightweights.

At my company, I see people getting "Outstanding Achievement Awards" during the same year that they have gotten sued for a project they were responsible for designing and in a year that they had no real accomplishments.

We had a kid who flagrantly lied multiple times on his resume (like being in three different physical locations(states) and holding three different jobs), saying that they produced things that obviously false, etc., etc. The executive interviewing him LOVED that he was a bullshitter. The kid was also the executive's wife's friend's son. This kid ended up massively screwing up a project and then moved to NYC to our headquarters and is now promoted to a business development position. People who do the work are the commodities today. This is why we are in so much trouble. The younger people don't want to bother learn their A.B.C's in any industry because they don't want to be shackled to a role that's not going to get them ahead. Meanwhile many industries just erode. This kid is the echo-Me Generation lighweight.

It is basically a virus that needs to run it's course.

People's blind loyalty to Political Parties is preventing them from seeing the truth and it just promotes more and more lightweights. So now we're in a situation where we have more weight on our social safety net, we reward those that abuse the public safety net and those that were supposed to guard it, we reward those that don't bother contribute to society, we increase the dead weight of those on the public dole, we allow Unions to bankrupt industries and then shift into government jobs, allow them a special deal to avoid paying their fair share of the Health Care Reform etc. and with all of that, we have a corporate structure that promotes the lightweights and self promoters. How is it that the very small amount of poorly fed sled dogs have to carry all this bullshit? How is it that this minority has to provide the abundance for the masses that exploit them? Just to give you a sense, think of it this way, in a project team you basically have one worker for two dead wood members, layered on that is a multiplier of three for profit and overhead and layered on that is the cost of government and then layered on that is the entitlements. One real worker has to provide for like 20 to 50 people. At a certain point, why bother? Why not be a blissfully happy DPW worker that retires at 42 with a nest egg that Mom and Dad saved for them instead of sending them to Liberal Arts School? I sometimes wonder if I should be thinking about March Madness instead of the Global Capital Structure, Central Banking, and regulatory arbitrage etc.

Basically, if you want your kid to be an exploiter parasite you do one thing, but if you want them to be a go-giver and contributer to society that is another thing. The deck is currently stacked against the latter and the looters currently have the upper hand. The ones that actually are providing the abundance are under extreme stress, but are better at their skill than any prior generation since the 1920's (in my profession based on the documents I see).

[Boston ITer]