On the last day of school, I had a little fun with our students and their parents. People who attend high-achieving private schools tend to have Type A personalities. I can relate to that because I tend more towards the Type A personality myself. We Type As are very competitive, with lots of self-criticism and a tendency towards workaholism. We seem always to have a sense of urgency, to be striving, and, sometimes, we have an inability to enjoy accomplishments. Unsurprisingly, this can lead to ill health, particularly of the cardiac and gastronomic variety. On the last day of school, I asked the students (and the parents in attendance- they are the ones who need it the most) to stand up, raise their right hands, and swear that over the summer they will plan an extended amount of time in which they will do absolutely nothing. I warned them that, if they did not do this, they would all become “neurotic nuts”. They were all rolling in laughter at this point, and I added the term “neurotic nut” to several…
