NEVER ENOUGH: When Achievement Pressure Becomes Toxic - And What We Can Do About It
Taft parents and alumni are invited to a virtual conversation with award-winning journalist and author of the New York Times bestselling book Never Enough: When Achievement Pressure Becomes Toxic – and What We Can Do About It, Jennifer Wallace. The event will take place Tuesday, April 30, from noon to 1 p.m. EDT; Amy Julia Becker ’94 will moderate the conversation.
The 21st century is a unique time in the history of parenting. Jennifer Wallace has written a timely book that can help us all learn and grow as parents. In Never Enough, Wallace investigates the roots of and solutions to “toxic achievement culture.” Drawing on interviews with families, educators, and an original survey of nearly 6,000 parents, she exposes how the pressure to perform is not a matter of parental choice but baked into our larger society and spurred by increasing income inequality and dwindling opportunities. As a result, children are increasingly absorbing the message that they have no value outside of their accomplishments, a message that is reinforced by the media and the greater culture at large.
Wallace is a contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and topical news programs. A Harvard graduate, she began her journalism career at CBS “60 Minutes,” where she was part of a team that won The Robert F. Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism. She is a Journalism Fellow at The Center for Parent and Teen Communication at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and serves on the board of the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City, where she lives with her husband and their three children.
Please register for the April 30 program here; a Zoom link will be sent to all registrants prior to the event.
Jennifer Wallace's virtual visit with Taft is made possible by the charlie fund. Launched in 2021, the charlie fund shares a legacy of kindness, love, and openness, while honoring Charlie Himmelrich '17 by creating and growing spaces, programming, and resources that help build connections and provide many resources that teach emotional intelligence to people of all ages.