Letting Go of Achievement Culture with Dr. Beth Cooper Benjamin
In this episode of Good Enough for Now, Dr. Beth Cooper Benjamin shares her experiences researching achievement culture, particularly among teen girls. After noticing the dynamics of a group of girls she supervised at camp as a teen herself, it became a lifelong passion to explore the psychological, social, and developmental challenges that are unique to girls.
The internet may highlight some of the competition and comparison that we all feel today, however Dr. Benjamin shares why a lot of the messaging kids receive about achievement may come from the adults in their lives, if even unintentionally.
Beth shares from her own personal journey and offers some guidance for normalizing that we must first fail if we want to succeed. Listen in to hear more.
What We Cover In This Episode:
The pervasive achievement culture in teens and the stress they experience at school and at home.
Strategies to shift away from the achievement culture, create downtime for teenagers, and foster the development of inner resilience.
Broader societal factors contributing to adolescent mental health issues, such as college admissions pressure and the expectation of perfection.
The role of parents and educators in navigating the achievement culture, including the need for aligned messaging and recognizing the pressures they face as well.
The importance of celebrating the process, embracing imperfections, and fostering collective resistance to achievement pressure in order to build resilience in teens.
RESOURCES:
Visit Dr. Benjamin’s website
Connect with Dr. Benjamin on LinkedIn
Cultivate Community, Find a New Path with Judy Schoenberg and Linda Lautenberg
Making Caring Common Project
ABOUT DR. BETH COOPER BENJAMIN:
Dr. Beth Cooper Benjamin is an adolescent development scholar and a designer and facilitator of civic engagement and leadership programming for young people. She is Founding Associate Director of the Center for Social Responsibility at the Manhattan Jewish Community Center, More recently, Beth served as Director of the Westover Resiliency Project at Westover, a girls' boarding and day high school in Middlebury, CT. There she led a multi-year grant-funded initiative to challenge achievement pressure and perfectionism and to foster resilience and well-being among students and adult staff. Beth has authored both scholarly and popular articles, and she consults on research, strategy, program development, and training with individual and organizational clients.
She received her master's and doctorate in Human Development and Psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Beth lives with her husband and their two young sons in Maplewood, New Jersey, where she practices embracing imperfection as a cook and a knitter
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