Week of May 26, 2022
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DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
ParkerChronicle.net
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 17 | SPORTS: PAGE 32
VOLUME 20 | ISSUE 26
Pressure to succeed is costing kids their childhoods Expectations have shifted over the course of generations BY THELMA GRIMES TGRIMES@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
As we forge forward through the 2020s, the pressure for youth to suc-
ceed is starting to impact kids as early as preschool and could be robbing of them of their childhood as societal demands create more pressure and anxiety than ever before. Over the last 100 years, the pressure to succeed in America has mounted. Whether it is the need to live the clichéd American Dream or the requirements set by parents that children will succeed and follow the path laid out for them, kids are
taught early on that they have to not only get a high school diploma but, to be happy and successful, they must go to college as well. A comic, created by Cartoonist Hilary Price, shows a mom lying on a table watching the sonogram of her baby. As the doctor checks things out, they start discussing the fact that it is never too early to start signing them up for sports and activities.
CLASS OF ’22
Child psychologists agree that at some point over the last few decades, parents started wanting their children to succeed so badly that it became a “keeping up with the Joneses” mentality. The need to do the activities, have a flourishing child in academics and athletics and keep them busy is an obsession. What is lost in this pressure being SEE EXPECTATIONS, P6
Backcountry headquarters, preschool project progresses Project to cost up to $8 million BY MCKENNA HARFORD MHARFORD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Family members and loved ones of Ponderosa High School graduates gathered at Echo Park Stadium in Parker to celebrate graduaPHOTO BY ELLIOTT WENZLER tion May 17. For more on graduation see pages 20 and 28.
Arapahoe Community College closing in Parker Douglas County Schools to open alternative campus BY ELLIOTT WENZLER EWENZLER@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Arapahoe Community College is closing its Parker campus after the State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Education agreed
to sell the building to the Douglas County School District on May 11. The school district plans to use the building as a space for alternative education, offering courses in business, marketing, project management, graphic design and textiles. The sale is part of a deal between ACC and the school district in which the college will lease space in the Lone Tree area. The building, recently purchased by the district,
used to house The Wildlife Experience. “This is a great opportunity to reinvest in a more strategic and intentional presence in our Parker/ Lone Tree service area,” Fuji said in an email to staff, according to the Arapahoe Pinnacle. “Strengthening our partnership with DCSD SEE CLOSING, P4
After six years of growing the Backcountry Wildnerness Area Base Camp program in Highlands Ranch, the community association is moving forward with designing the Backcountry Outdoor Center to headquarter existing and future services. On May 9 and May 17, the Highlands Ranch Community Association Board of Directors and delegates approved moving the Backcountry Outdoor Center to the Community Involvement Process to begin getting feedback. The project outlines two phases, with the construction of a Environmental Education Center housing offices, a nature pre-school and program space in the first phase, and an indoor arena and horse corral updates in phase two. Currently, the backcountry staff do not have a centralized office space and programs are weather dependent without any indoor SEE PROJECT, P5