Teacher's Pet, Sweet Valley Twins book 2

Both of the girls are taking ballet lessons. They are going to do a recital and Elizabeth seems to have the edge on winning the lead role. The teacher praises how Elizabeth is doing which causes Jessica to become angry, labeling her sister as the 'teacher's pet.'

Then we have a logic problem. Jessica avoids practicing as much as she can yet blames others for her own dancing shortcomings. There is even an act of sabotage.

Here's the logic problem. Elizabeth practices often and does well. Jessica does minimal practicing, blames others for not getting praise from the teacher, is mean to Elizabeth and yet it seems that she ends up being a better dancer?

That doesn't make any sense at all. If you want to be good at something you need to practice. You don't need to over do that, of course, and that's what some people do and expect others to do, but you do need to put in at least some practice. If you see that you performance is still not very good then you can seek help from the teacher or from a friend that is good at whatever it is you are trying to learn to do.

The book, then, basically is saying do whatever you want to do whenever you want to do it and things will still turn out fine for you. Be rewarded for being lazy.

Not a good message for young people.

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