Of course it's not quite so binary. The dean wants a strong applicant pool as well as to dissuade helicopter parenting. I don't believe it's a contradictory stance she's taking.
The Dean can of course want whatever she likes, without contradiction or with hardly matters since our wants are not rational. But the chance of getting it seems unlikely to lie with preaching to parents that they should let their children fail. Especially not in a nation with a very high culture of ambition where so many perceive failure as catastrophic.
If you are a gatekeeper to an area of high value, and if you set demanding test standards, then people are going to try to teach the tests. All the talking about good parenting in the world seems unlikely to change that.
In that position, one can either change the standard to support that which one desires, (Have a discussion that goes something like, “If we are interested in educating young men and women of resilience, how do we encourage and/or test for resilience?”) or one can complain. I've yet to seen any indication that complaining will improve matters in a situation where the majority of the incentive seems to lie on the side of those who act contrary to your desires.
if "strong" applicant is defined by things that are not possible unless they have an helicopter parent it is fairly binary...
What teen would be able to have the breadth and variety of experiences that seem to be required nowadays to stand out in a university application unless they have a set of parents that make them possible?
If you are a gatekeeper to an area of high value, and if you set demanding test standards, then people are going to try to teach the tests. All the talking about good parenting in the world seems unlikely to change that.
In that position, one can either change the standard to support that which one desires, (Have a discussion that goes something like, “If we are interested in educating young men and women of resilience, how do we encourage and/or test for resilience?”) or one can complain. I've yet to seen any indication that complaining will improve matters in a situation where the majority of the incentive seems to lie on the side of those who act contrary to your desires.