The Overachievers Essay

“High school, especially, has become a game of survivor, a hypercompetition that swirls around the precepts ‘Outwit, Outplay, Outlast’” (Robbins 390). The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids is a nonfiction book written by Alexandra Robbins who emphasizes in the negative effects of modern American education. Robbins uses numerous personal examples from a group of nine teenagers from Walt Whitman High School. The reason why she selected Whitman High School is not because it is know as one of the best public school, but because in mid 1990s, she was one of these students rushing through the same hallways. This was where she became an overachiever, and discovered it firsthand.

First of all, educational system in this contemporary era

The intensifying pressures to succeed and the drive of the overachiever culture have consequences that reach far beyond the damaged psyches of teenage college applicants, though that effect alone should be enough for one to take notice. Not only can stress affect your mental health, it can also affect your physical health. According to the article, Healthy Lifestyle Stress Management, “Stress that's left unchecked can contribute to many health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes.” Overachiever culture affects not only overachievers and the college application process, but also the U.S. education system as a whole, non-overachieving students, the college counseling and test prep industries, the tendency to cheat and use cutthroat tactics to get ahead, the way parents raise children, and campus drug culture. It contributes directly to young adults’ paralyzing fear of failure. There are no more students out in the streets filling it with laughter. The intense pressure is “believed to be a major factor in the 114 percent spike in suicide rates among fifteen to nineteen year olds between 1980 and 2002” (Robbins, 15). Throughout the work, the author follows many diverse students who have a lifestyle where overachieving takes priority. She also occasionally interrupts to address certain issues which affect one of the teens, and explains its negative effect on an international scale. She discusses how social pressure from parents and friends, drugs, drinking, and suicide all play a part in driving high school teenagers to the brink of insanity. “Overachiever culture is disturbing not because it exists but because it has become a way of life” (Robbins,