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    I think you have it right.

    There is not a lot of detail provided about the two studies, however it is my understanding that in the first study, for men, the amount of time spent on facebook was not directly related to self-reported symptoms of depression, rather (for men) only that time on facebook which was spent engaged in social comparison was directly related to self-reported symptoms of depression. My take-away is that men spent an amount of time on facebook engaged in other activities than social comparison; Time spent on facebook doing other things (possibly, as you mentioned, debating politics) was not related to self-reported symptoms of depression... only time spent in social comparison had that affect.

    In the second study, it was learned that for both genders, social comparisons "up", "down", and even non-directional were mediating variables; All types of social comparison could make people feel bad.

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    Originally Posted by raptor_dad
    Originally Posted by Bostonian
    Don't most adults spend their working lives "complying" in order to get paid?

    I reject that whole view of things.

    The fact that some adults are willing to amputate parts of their souls to fit in those little boxes is irrelevant. I am am not willing to be a cog in that machine. My kids shouldn't be grist for that mill. The fact your life sucks isn't justification for tormenting the next generation. Kids at SF Lowell or TJ or Boston Latin or Whitney or Stuyvesant shouldn't be working until 1:00am every night. Kids at PA or Gunn shouldn't be stepping in front of trains. Gifted education isn't tantamount to workaholism.
    I never said students should be sleep deprived or study non-stop. Here is the paragraph containing the sentence you quoted:

    Originally Posted by Bostonian
    Don't most adults spend their working lives "complying" in order to get paid? Are the teens spending several hours a day studying worse off than those who are working full time at entry level jobs in the summer? There should still be time for sports and socializing.
    I wonder if the students taking 10 or more AP courses over 2 years are boosting their admissions chances as much as they think. Colleges use AP course grades and test scores as evidence the student can do college level work, but doing well in 5 AP classes ought to demonstrate that, and the admissions boost going from 5 to 10 is probably much smaller than the boost going from 0 to 5.

    Today there is an NYT opinion piece by Frank Bruni Today’s Exhausted Superkids on the topic of this thread.

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    Thanks for sharing - Today's Exhausted Superkids is an interesting article about maintaining balance in life. As on the forums, many of the article's comments are thought-provoking, both pro & con.

    The OP's article also mentions Bruni's book, Where You Go is Not Who You'll Be, which was discussed on another thread.

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    Originally Posted by Bostonian
    ...take unofficial AP courses over the summer, so that a course load of 5-6 AP courses during the school year will be more manageable -- they will have already seen some of the material.

    Our children are in Russian School of Math so they can get an "edge" in math. My eldest son, a rising 8th grader, has taken two AOPS courses in Python programming and will take more programming classes before high school. In high school he will have an edge over students for which AP Computer Science is their first programming experience. I don't think we are doing anything wrong.

    Five or six AP courses sounds like a recipe for sleep deprivation and non-stop studying. As for the summer courses, the volume of homework in the AP classes is a large part of the sleep deprivation, and a summer course won't make that go away.

    But what strikes me even more is the idea that some parents are driving their children so as to give them an "edge." To me, this is a clear statement about the creation of a success machine over the development of a person with a meaningful education and the perspective to use it for the greater good. Though I suppose that the greater good is probably not a factor in the thinking of many of our society's hothousing snowplow parents as they shove their children through the right AP classes, the right major at the colleges, and the right jobs. The goal is not to help a person develop into a thinking adult, but a success machine who, externally anyway, has done everything "right" while he complies so as to get paid. Never mind how many of these people are withering inside. No, just push that unhappy thought away.


    Thus, the summer or enrichment class isn't chosen as a way for to develop the child's mind or his inner self, but to give him an edge in a competition that has a large element of artificiality at its roots, anyway. Having an actual summer job (like a camp leader) is viewed as a negative because...well, I'm not sure, really, having been afraid to probe this particular boogie man of parental insecurity and my very uncomfortable fear that it has something to do with economic status.


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    Sadly, raising children whose inner selves are well-developed means that a fair number of them on the natural distribution are going to utterly lack any sort of killer instinct.

    In the world as it is now, being the parent to such a child is a fairly unnerving experience. One does fear that they are, metaphorically speaking, anyway-- Babes in the Woods.

    Because they really WILL be taken advantage of, or even harmed, before they will sacrifice their principles.

    On the one hand, the world desperately needs more people like that in it. On the other, as a parent, you spend a lot of time terribly frightened for such children.



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    Originally Posted by HowlerKarma
    Sadly, raising children whose inner selves are well-developed means that a fair number of them on the natural distribution are going to utterly lack any sort of killer instinct.

    In the world as it is now, being the parent to such a child is a fairly unnerving experience. One does fear that they are, metaphorically speaking, anyway-- Babes in the Woods.

    Because they really WILL be taken advantage of, or even harmed, before they will sacrifice their principles.

    On the one hand, the world desperately needs more people like that in it. On the other, as a parent, you spend a lot of time terribly frightened for such children.

    Middle roads are OK. One might be able to train a person with principles and perspective who is also canny enough to not be taken advantage of.

    May it be so.

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    Originally Posted by Val
    Originally Posted by Bostonian
    ...take unofficial AP courses over the summer, so that a course load of 5-6 AP courses during the school year will be more manageable -- they will have already seen some of the material.

    Our children are in Russian School of Math so they can get an "edge" in math. My eldest son, a rising 8th grader, has taken two AOPS courses in Python programming and will take more programming classes before high school. In high school he will have an edge over students for which AP Computer Science is their first programming experience. I don't think we are doing anything wrong.

    Five or six AP courses sounds like a recipe for sleep deprivation and non-stop studying. As for the summer courses, the volume of homework in the AP classes is a large part of the sleep deprivation, and a summer course won't make that go away.

    But what strikes me even more is the idea that some parents are driving their children so as to give them an "edge."

    Don't many parents move to places with the best public schools they can afford or send their children to private school in order to improve the prospects of their children in life? I wonder why after-schooling should be singled out as especially mercenary.

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    To me, this is a clear statement about the creation of a success machine over the development of a person with a meaningful education and the perspective to use it for the greater good.
    I think the greater good is achieved by people pursuing their interests in a market economy just as often as it is by people consciously pursuing the "greater good". Whether one believes this is related to one's political views.

    Quote
    Thus, the summer or enrichment class isn't chosen as a way for to develop the child's mind or his inner self, but to give him an edge in a competition that has a large element of artificiality at its roots, anyway.
    It can be chosen for both reasons.

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    I agree with Bostonian.

    Almost all kids need a little pushing, gifted kids included. There is nothing inherently wrong about summer school or prep classes.

    I do blame the increasing use of extracurricular in college admission. I think the kids are tired not only because they were taking 5 AP classes, they also need to play on a travel sport team or orchestra, and volunteer and be a leader of whatever organizations. They have no unstructured down time.

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    Agreed.

    Quote
    I agree with Bostonian.
    Me, too. IMO, Bostonian has not expressed an extremist view. If others believe his preferred number of AP courses may be too many for their own family... it may still be the optimal number for Bostonian's.

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    Almost all kids need a little pushing, gifted kids included.
    I believe that was the predominant view on a thread which discussed supporting or hothousing.

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    There is nothing inherently wrong about summer school or prep classes.
    A tool, which may be used productively or not.

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    I do blame the increasing use of extracurricular in college admission.
    Some find extracurriculars to be a quick test of whether one is well-rounded and has a balanced life; Others find extracurriculars to be easily padded and/or an indicator of SES.

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    I think the kids are tired not only because they were taking 5 AP classes, they also need to play on a travel sport team or orchestra, and volunteer and be a leader of whatever organizations. They have no unstructured down time.
    Both unstructured time and sleep are important... as is developing a work ethic and one's own interests (internal locus of control). There are many elements to keep in balance, and some may say that the more interests/skills/abilities one is cultivating, the less devastating may be the impact of any one element becoming an epic fail (learning experience).

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    Don't pay too much attention to any one study on Facebook. I've been reading these studies for work for years and they are a jumbled mess of contradictions in terms of what they've found. We really, really don't understand Facebook's effects on us yet.

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