My son is a high school senior. He's been very diligent since ninth grade in his school work - far more diligent than I'd ever have imagined since I never really pushed him - I was a classic high school screwup who had god enough test scores. During his junior year I noted that he did more homework every week than I did my whole junior year.
As a senior, he's realized much of the gist of what you and TFA are saying. He started teaching himself python (I'm a coder but I've never pushed it on him and I'm letting him learn on his own answering questions when he brings them to me) and now he's discovered Arduino and has completely lost himself in building projects and coding them. His grades have started to suffer some, but he is convinced that he's doing the right thing by following his real interests and I agree with him.
OTOH, there's a side of me that wonders how I would have felt if he'd done this before college apps were all done and grades submitted. As other commenters have said, it's a wonder that any creativity survives this system.
As a senior, he's realized much of the gist of what you and TFA are saying. He started teaching himself python (I'm a coder but I've never pushed it on him and I'm letting him learn on his own answering questions when he brings them to me) and now he's discovered Arduino and has completely lost himself in building projects and coding them. His grades have started to suffer some, but he is convinced that he's doing the right thing by following his real interests and I agree with him.
OTOH, there's a side of me that wonders how I would have felt if he'd done this before college apps were all done and grades submitted. As other commenters have said, it's a wonder that any creativity survives this system.