to care about the concepts; we just
want to know what’s on the test.”
Although clearly a bright young
woman, Laura was unable to cope
once she was out in the real world
of independent problem solving,
spontaneous action and teamwork.
Laura ended up leaving university
due both to her poor performance
and resulting lack of confidence. As
you can imagine, leaving university
caused Laura to go through a difficult
period in her life. I very much hope
she is healthy, happy and successful.
But with little ability to adapt, I worry
about her.
Free range
Of course, no parent sets out to raise
a crispy or a teacup. And it is certain
that no parent wants their child to
leave university prematurely. So what
is causing this phenomenon and how
can it be avoided?
The best way to avoid raising
a crispy or a teacup is to avoid
overscheduling and over-instructing.
A 2014 study in the journal
Frontiers
in Psycholog y
showed the relationship
between the time children spend
in less-structured and structured
activities and the development of
vital skills that are becoming more
and more important in our twenty-
first century world. Scientists call
these skills “self-directed executive
functioning” and as the study lead
author stated, these skills “help
them (kids) in all kinds of ways
throughout their daily lives, from
flexibly switching between different
activities rather than getting stuck
on one thing, to stopping themselves
from yelling when angry, to delaying
gratification. Executive function
during childhood also predicts
important outcomes, like academic
performance, health, wealth and
criminality, years and even decades
later.” The study results concluded
that children who spent more time
in structured activities had less
self-directed executive functioning
and those who spent more time in
free-f lowing, open-ended activities
had greater self-directed executive
functioning.
The key identified twenty-
first century skills are creativity,
communication, critical thinking and
collaboration. By leaving no time or
space for trial and error, mistakes and
just figuring things out, over-scheduling
and over-instruction stand in the way
of all of these skills. Of course, some
level of structure is good for children,
but with the endless cycle of structured
activities that have taken over modern
childhood, our kids’ lives have been
thrown off balance. This imbalance is
leaving them with the inability to think
for themselves, think on their feet, and
think outside of the box.
Ironically, today’s well-meaning
parents who are over-scheduling
and over-instructing because of
fear of competition are seriously
under-preparing children for our
rapidly changing modern world
that increasingly demands complex
cognitive skills and self-motivation
that cannot be outsourced or
automated. The days of awards and
promotions for those who know the
right answer are quickly disappearing
– we have Google for that. We are in
the era of conceptualization, where
those who ask the right questions,
find the right answer, and can apply
knowledge within diverse groups
and environments will succeed.
Those who can discover innovation,
connection and meaning will flourish.
This is bad news for
crispies
and
teacups
, but good news for kids who
have led natural, well balanced lives
with enough play, social bonding and
downtime.
Dr Shimi Kang is an award-winning,
Harvard-trained psychiatrist, and Medical
Director of Child and Youth Mental Health
for the city of Vancouver. Her critically
acclaimed book, The Dolphin Way:
A
Parent’s Guide to Raising Healthy, Happy,
and Motivated Kids
is a national bestseller.
April 2015
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