At the end of every school year, many parents ask me to write a personal note to their student as an inscription in a certain children's book. They request this of all of their kids' teachers, then give the book as a graduation gift. It's a cute idea, but what it amounts to is a large stack of paperwork at a time of the school year when I'm already drowning in paperwork.
When newcomers or a family rising out of poverty, or maybe just a middle-class family that has squirrelled away the money for a college education, push a child to study hard, that child can feel the heavy burden of family hopes. In many countries around the world, these expectations are driving an epidemic of suicide and self-harming behaviors among emerging adults.
