Rant: overinvolved parents

So, I, for one, knew a couple kids growing up who were -- how should I say it -- coddled. Smart kids. Kids who were capable, but kids who, for whatever reason, inevitably submitted homework assignments that seemed just a little too advanced given their in-class capabilities.

You know the kid I'm talking about. He or she was a total perfectionist. Spoke well. Performed well. But that posterboard presentation was just out of this world. Meticulously put together. Over the top. Superior in all ways. This student was getting help from home. In the worst cases, her mom was writing the notecards over her shoulder. In the best, dad was just supergluing the figurines to the diorama. But either way, there was a level of pressure coming from the "parental units" that pushed this kid too far.

I found a website today that reminded me of this parent-child dynamic, despite having not witnessed it in years. The site is called "Kids Against Anthropogenic Global Warming" or kidsagainstagw.com . And I don't think my analysis requires explanation, but I'll give it anyway. What *kid* knows what "anthropogenic global warming" means? I'll give you global warming. That's ubiquitous these days. But anthropogenic? Heck, most high schoolers probably can't tell you what that word means, much less middle and elementary school aged tykes, which the word "kid" connotates.

And so I shame you, kidsagainstgw.com because you're just another example of overachieving parents pushing their agenda on their kids. So to the parents: maybe kids don't think humans are changing the global climate, but let them name their own fucking organization.