The Ambitious Generation

Are today's teenagers really slackers, the apathetic, baggy-pants wearing, unmotivated individuals so often portrayed by the media? In this landmark study of 7,000 adolescents two of the nation's foremost education experts provide startling news about our teenagers. Contrary to prevailing notions, today's teens are the most ambitious generation yet - more want to be college graduates and work as professionals than ever before. But because schools and parents sometimes do a poor job of directing them, many take the wrong courses, choose the wrong colleges, and enter college with unrealistic career goals. For many their dreams of success are likely to remain just that - dreams. Barbara Schneider and David Stevenson show how parents and teachers can take adolescents' admirable raw ambition and provide them with direction and social support. As the authors demonstrate through many poignant cases, it is not enough to simply tell teens to work hard. We must also help them plan what they want to do and how to go about doing it.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Self-Help. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.