The New World: Connecticut parents please read

I love Connecticut.  I say this as a transplant.  I hear complaints about our state.  But the quality of nice, kindness of people, and the great value our residents place on family and education has made this a great place to raise children.

My worries relate to our children.  Most Connecticut families are affluent by not only world standards but by American standards.  That’s nice as our children will have some safety net as they head into the next phase of their lives.  That next phase, however, will be far tougher for most of them than their parents.  Part of the reason: their lives are currently very easy.

There is a sleepy feel to Shoreline, CT in terms of work ethic.  Our children immerse themselves in the pool and the beach.  Their summer jobs are usually not too demanding.  Guilford, Madison, Old Lyme, Essex,  Old Saybrook etc. have idyllic summer settings.

But when I travel – as I am now – to different parts of the world, I see their competition.  Kids  throughout the world work far harder than most of our children.  Back in the 1980s-1990s,  this didn’t matter.  Paraphrasing what Bill Gates once said, “I would rather be a kid with a B average in Brooklyn than an A average in Bangalore in the 1980s.  But that’s not true anymore.”

Use the summer to help build your children’s education.