Our kids aren’t broken. We need to stop treating every struggle like a disorder
Summary
Clinical neuropsychologist Katie S. Davis argues that intense academic competition and constant measurement can damage children’s mental health when parents treat ordinary struggles as disorders requiring diagnoses, therapy, or testing accommodations. She illustrates the concern through “Zach,” a fictionalized high-achieving student distressed by ACT scores despite performing near the top nationally. Davis distinguishes genuine disabilities, for which support is essential, from unnecessary medicalization. She recommends valuing average performance, effort, resilience, autonomy, and helping children face manageable difficulties rather than routinely removing obstacles.
Watchmen Signals
Biblical Context
The pressure to make achievement, rankings, and admission status the measure of a child’s worth is meaningfully illuminated by Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6:25-34. In context, Jesus warns against anxious preoccupation with life’s measurable necessities and directs his followers toward trust in God rather than continual worry. That does not make academic diligence wrong, but it challenges the fear that a score or institutional outcome determines a person’s value. The passage supports the article’s concern about status-driven anxiety without validating every clinical claim it makes. Philippians 4:11-13 also speaks to contentment across changing circumstances. Paul describes learning contentment in both abundance and need; the passage is not a promise of unlimited achievement, but a call not to make well-being dependent on external outcomes. That principle relates to the article’s recommendation that children and parents treat “average” performance as acceptable and resist defining success solely through rankings. The article’s emphasis on effort, responsibility, and resilience has a partial parallel in Proverbs 22:6 and Ephesians 6:4. Proverbs presents child formation as a serious parental responsibility, while Ephesians instructs parents to bring children up with disciplined, constructive guidance rather than provoking them. Neither passage gives a formula for modern parenting, diagnoses anxiety, or rejects disability accommodations. They do, however, support intentional formation that avoids both neglect and needless pressure. A further relevant distinction is between helping someone who genuinely cannot perform a task and excusing unwillingness or avoiding every hardship. Second Thessalonians 3:10-12 addresses able-bodied idleness in its own first-century congregational setting and should not be applied to children with disabilities or students needing legitimate support. It nevertheless underscores that responsible participation and productive effort are biblical values. Scripture therefore supports a balanced approach: compassion for genuine vulnerability, patient instruction, realistic expectations, and freedom from making worldly achievement the foundation of identity. No specific biblical prophecy is implicated by the parenting and mental-health discussion.
Biblical Sources
Scripture references supporting the biblical context above.
Paul emphasizes responsible work and rejects voluntary idleness in the specific context of the Thessalonian church. It offers a limited parallel to the article’s emphasis on effort and responsibility, but must not be used to dismiss disability or legitimate accommodations.
Paul instructs parents to raise children with disciplined instruction rather than provoking them. This supports a balanced parental role that neither abandons children in genuine need nor subjects them to destructive pressure.
Jesus addresses anxious preoccupation with life’s necessities and calls his followers to trust God rather than be ruled by fear about outcomes. This directly illuminates the article’s concern about achievement-driven anxiety, while not condemning responsible effort.
Paul describes learning contentment in both abundance and hardship. The passage supports resisting the belief that scores, status, or external success are necessary for a stable sense of well-being.
This proverb presents the formation of children as a significant parental responsibility. It relates to the article’s focus on how parents shape children’s attitudes toward effort, success, and difficulty, though it is not a clinical parenting formula.
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