When asking an audience of parents what attributes they value, Stanford educator and author Denise Pope heard things like critical thinking, creativity, and well-being. Most parents indicated they did not value popularity, acceptance to a prestigious college, or being good at an extracurricular activity, Mind/Shift reports. Yet those are the very qualities that the students Pope studied most often listed as the keys to success. “The disconnect that we’re seeing means we’re not necessarily agreeing with the community’s values, but we are part of the community,” said Pope. In researching her book Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students, Pope shadowed students at elite schools to try and understand their lives and the pressures they face. She found that students value extrinsic qualities like grades much more highly than their parents. The students perceive the education system as a game to be played. Many said they were “doing school” in order to get to college, not necessarily to learn…
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