Frank Bruni’s “today’s Exhausted Superkids” Article Analysis Essay

Frank Bruni’s article “Today’s Exhausted Superkids”, regards how students in today’s America are overworked and exhausted in school.  Whether this is because of self-infliction, parent expectations, or social status.  Bruni also focuses on students' sleeping habits, especially regarding how little sleep they are getting compared to the recommended amount.  He offers stories regarding the problem and only briefly discusses solutions to fix this.  Frank Bruni provides stories and evidence that kids are more frequently exhausted and overworked, yet never offers true solutions to offer kids more sleep and less work.

Students all over America have become increasingly overworked and exhausted by school.  As more and more students strive for college, high school becomes more competitive.  This causes students to be pushed harder, whether it is personal goals or outside forces.  Parents who want to better their child's future cause them to become helicopter parents.  This can cause stress on the kids along with more work.  Overworking causes more work resulting in less sleep.  In the article, it states, “...55 percent of American teenagers from the ages of 14 to 17 reported that they were getting less than seven hours a night…”  This is not only directly related to being overworked; smartphones and other electronic devices play a crucial role in this.  Teenagers especially suffer from this, resulting in them receiving less than the recommended 8-10 hours of sleep nightly.

“Pressure of Perfection” is an article that shows a very dramatic, but an excellent example of how this can affect a student.  This article was about the suicides of students attending the University of Pennsylvania.  Over a 13-month period, 6 people committed suicide on the campus of UPenn.  This shows that even during college, students still suffer from being overworked and exhausted because of school.  A book, “Overloaded and Unprepared”, is written about a group that urges for a more balanced environment.  This book discusses how too much homework can affect a student and how school structure affects students.  These stories all correlate with Bruni’s outlook on today’s students.  He effectively finds articles and stories to use as evidence to support his ideas that students, regardless of age, are more overworked and exhausted.

Frank Bruni was a perfect person to write about today’s students.  He first went to a College Preparatory High School; this meant he had to work extremely hard in school to prepare for college.  Then going to North Carlina with a Bachelor’s in English, while earning Phi Beta Kappa; which is the most prestigious academic achievement a person can earn in college.  Finally, he goes to Columbia, to earn his Master’s in the science of journalism, while also finishing 2nd in his class.  This shows that Frank Bruni himself can be classified as a “Superkid”.  He strived in school and saw the benefits, however, he also saw the downsides.  He suffered from eating disorders including bulimia.  He is also a member of the LGBT community as an openly gay man.  This can cause hardships both in the workforce and in school.  However, Frank Bruni perfectly represents the “super kids” of today, with his work in high school and in college.

Throughout Bruni’s article, he lists and brings light to the troubles that students face in today's education system.  He lacks giving true solutions to solve this problem.  For example, Bruni talks about Silicon Valley and outside sleep experts trying to help students sleep more effectively and frequently.  However, never shows evidence that this actually caused more students to have more sleep and be more refreshed for school.  Another idea that Bruni provides is to give kids more “wiggle room”.  This idea is more referring to helicopter parents but, it could never work because parents want their children to become successful so they push them and make them try hard in school. This causes them to become overworked and creates the cycle all over again.  This proves that although Bruni brings light to the situation, he never truly gives solutions to help solve the problem.