The award-winning journalist is joined by psychologist Melissa Greenberg to discuss her recent book "Never Enough: When Achievement Pressure Becomes Toxic - and What We Can Do About It." On Zoom.
At this virtual event on Zoom, Jennifer Wallace will discuss her book "Never Enough," which investigates the deep roots of toxic achievement culture, with clinical psychologist Melissa Greenberg as part of the Mayors Wellness Campaign. The conversation will examine how can we teach our kids to strive toward excellence without crushing them and offer parents advice and tools to help raise healthy achievers.
About the Book: In the ever more competitive race to secure the best possible future, today’s students face unprecedented pressure to succeed. Drawing on interviews with families, educators, and an original survey of nearly 6,000 parents, Jennifer Wallace exposes how the pressure to perform is not a matter of parental choice but baked in to 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 greater culture at large.
Through deep research and interviews with today’s leading child psychologists, Wallace shows what kids need from the adults in the room is not more pressure, but to feel like they matter, and have intrinsic self-worth not contingent upon external achievements. Parents and educators who adopt the language and values of mattering help children see themselves as a valuable contributor to a larger community. And in an ironic twist, kids who receive consistent feedback that they matter no matter what are more likely to have the resilience, self-confidence, and psychological security to thrive.
About the Speakers:
Jennifer Wallace is a frequent contributor to "The Wall Street Journal" and "The Washington Post" and appears on national television to discuss her articles and relevant topics in the news. After graduating from Harvard College, Wallace 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. Jennifer serves on the board of the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City, where she lives with her husband and their three children.
Melissa Greenberg's research has examined how the process of regulating emotions is understood in contemporary psychotherapy practice, focusing on psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, dialectical-behavioral, and emotion-focused therapy models. Greenberg has also written and presented on how representations of gender in media and art impact identity development in the digital age. She earned her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Rutgers University and has held clinical positions at Lenox Hill Hospital, Zucker Hillside Hospital, and the Rutgers University Counseling Service. She has a private practice in Princeton (and NYC), where she sees adolescents, adults, and couples and specializes in anxiety and mood disorders, perinatal mental health, and parenting