I don’t think the author blames the schools, and at a level, it’s more a reflection on what the process is doing to kids. He points out is that roughly 25% of the kids at Yale are being treated for anxiety and/or depression. (I have heard similar numbers from faculty friends at top BS, btw.) This can’t be good! He also notes that almost none of the kids starting at Yale said they wanted to be consultants when they graduated, yet by senior year, something like 40% of them want those jobs! Yale isn’t telling them that – their peer group is!
He suggests that for many kids, avoiding schools that are filled with kids who were in the top 10% of their high school classes would be a good thing – maybe the treadmill would move a little less swiftly and/or they’d realize that what they see as failure in fact is not so horrible. In his case, failure is taking a class outside your comfort zone out of curiosity and not doing well in it. Not sleeping in the gutter.
I suspect that one of the challenges for the kids at top schools is that to get in, they’ve done EVERYTHING well, which means that it may not be so easy to decide what to pursue. If you’re that kid who has always had a knack for one thing and has not particularly excelled at the others, the way forward is much clearer. For a kid who’s multi-talented and who’s gotten a lot of positive reinforcement for being in the 5% who get into that highly selective school, for example, being the 5% (the outcome) may be more exciting than what’s involved in getting there (journey).
@laenen, I am someone who fundamentally agrees with his thesis, yet wanted my kid to be with a more ambitious herd so moved him to a prep school, so yeah, I’m guilty as charged! What to do isn’t clear. You want your kid to have options, but to do so, you may be putting him/her into a situation in which you’re setting him/her up so that it’s difficult to pursue other, more suitable options for them. I think this is a great read, though, because awareness may be a huge step toward finding the right balance for you and your kid.