How scarey is raw, naked ambition?

I have written before about my teenage daughter. She is like many others of her generation, a mix of delightful and frustrating. This I think is typical and has been evidenced in her last year of GCSE's with an inability to get out of bed before noon (school days were a continual chase and perennial brinksmanship too), a difficulty to engage in the workload associated with GCSE's, at least until towards the final days, and a frequent attitude that the world owed her a living and she did not need to invest in it in order to be served. Everything was a deal, on her terms and the other party had to pay first.

I exaggerate slightly for effect, but only slightly and it is true that in the final days she knuckled down to revision and worked hard. Her results, which were better than I think even she expected, gave her tangible proof of the rewards of hard work.

Now she is sixth form (Rhetoric as it is called in her school). She wears a dark suit rather than a uniform. She says the teachers treat them more like adults and she is enjoying the first weeks of her new study courses. This is evidenced by her setting her own alarm and getting herself out to school, She was asked to address the whole school about the Duke of Edinburgh Awards (she is just about to get her silver) and even though she seems to have winged it, her performance has attracted praise from her peers and teachers alike.

This was evident at a recent evening for parents and pupils at which four teachers told us how good she was and that she has been asked to repeat the performance twice more. Of course there was a satisfied glow standing beside me.

Her tutor went further and said that she was now registering with senior staff for the right reasons and it was things like this that influenced decisions for head girl, etc. something I don't think she had contemplated. She was encouraged to take every opportunity to show service and leadership and like the actress she hopes to become she played up to that.

Today was the school open morning for prospective students and parents. Last night at 10:45pm she emailed the deputy head asking if he wanted any help(!). He replied and today she was up at school time and had me drive her to school for 9. She then did a morning of tours and when we collected her at around 2, claimed her voice was gone.

This would NOT have happened a year ago, maybe even a week ago, but I can see the plans hatching in her head and a campaign of presidential proportions lies ahead. Scarey or what?

PS: Writing this made me recall some work I did on a Dale Carnegie course over 25 years ago. The structure of the teaching was a series of principles around how to win friends and influence them. One of the principles was "Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to." This seems to fit into that mould.