Bostonian, it's a matter of degree of pushing, I think.

I see parents who PUNISH their children for not bringing home A's in honors math classes, and who threaten to take away 'fun' extracurriculars for standardized test scores below the 98th percentile. Seriously.

For those kinds of kids (I'd guess 95th-97th percentile, probably) I think this sort of thing is toxic. It results in what you noted in a previous post-- a LOT of stress-responses, even depression and suicide risk.




Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.