The Huffington Post – John F. Ince
“Two years ago Hannah Herbst of Baca Roton, Florida, seemed to be just a regular teenager. She, fit in well with her peers. She was a normal girl … a soccer girl … a basketball girl. She very well might have been one of those kids wearing one of those T-shirts that read, “Soccer is life … the rest just details.” But that was all before her father, Joel Herbst, an assistant dean for educational programs at Florida Atlantic University got that crazy idea about enrolling Hannah in engineering camp. When they arrived, she looked around and immediately noticed one thing – there were 40 guys in the room and one girl – her. She turned to her dad, gave him one of those looks and said, “Let’s go home. I don’t want to be here.”…But something strange happened on day one. Hannah got hooked…Soon Hannah was seeing the world around her differently, asking questions about the way things worked that don’t usually occur to soccer girls and basketball girls…Joel Herbst sees it this way, “As parents, we often try to guide, push or coerce our kids into things that we think they’ll be good at without letting them explore the broad range of activities and opportunities that are out there. When I attend a soccer game and I see the parents screaming at the top of their lungs, I say to myself, Gee I wish they would do that for their students in math or science.” But parents who want they kids to explore the broader array of activities are up against all kinds of social pressure that point kids in other directions. Says, Joel, “I’m not painting a broad brush, but I just wish we, as a country, would value, the promise and opportunities that exist in education as much as we do on the athletic field.””(more)