Finding Your evidence Can parents go too far in supporting their children’s dreams? This is a question
people sometimes ask when they hear the story of the teenage mountain climber,
Jordan Romero. Between the ages of 10 and 15, Jordan climbed the highest mountain
on every continent—and his father and stepmother climbed them with him. They call
themselves Team Jordan.
Paul Romero, Jordan’s father, was taken by surprise when his 9-year-old son
firmly announced his intention to climb “the seven summits.” Jordan had seen a mural at
school, showing the seven peaks that make up this pantheon of mountains. When he
told his father what he wanted to do, Paul Romero’s jaw dropped. Paul Romero is an
experienced mountaineer, so he knew what was involved. He also knew his son.
“We’ve always taught him to just think big and we’ll try to make it happen,” Paul
Romero said. But, as Romero later noted, there was a fine line between encouraging
his son and pushing him too far. The father began by training his son so that he could
“begin to even understand what mountaineering was—that there’s this long, hard, dirty,
un-fun hours and days and weeks of carrying packs and long, extensive, brutal travel,
and all this type of stuff just before you can even think of climbing a mountain.”
Jordan persevered, though, and in July 2006, when he was 10 years old, Jordan
and his family climbed 19,300-foot-high Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak on the

African continent. This was the first rung in the amazing ladder that Jordan Romero had
set out to climb. Over the next five and a half years, Team Jordan climbed Mount Elbrus
in Russia (2007), Mount Aconcagua in South America (2007), Mount McKinley in North
America (2008), Mount Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia (2009), Mount Everest in Asia
(2010), and Vinson Massif in Antarctica (2011). In many of these climbs, Jordan set a
world record as the youngest ever to climb the peak. When he completed the seven
summits at 15, he was the youngest person ever to accomplish that feat.
It was the Mount Everest ascent—when Jordan was only 13 years old—that has
created the greatest controversy. Jordan’s feat as the youngest person to reach “the
top of the world” was publicized around the world. “How Young Is Too Young?” asked
one newspaper headline. Many mountain climbers and medical experts questioned
whether a 13-year-old boy could climb so high (Mount Everest is almost 30,000 feet
high) without physically harming his body. Dr. Michael Bradley, a psychologist and
expert on teen behavior, noted, “Most 13-year-olds don’t have the wiring to make
cognitive life-and-death decisions and are not truly able to understand what they’re
signing on for.” Another physician, Dr. Peter Hackett, reported that there are conflicting
opinions about the effects on a young brain. Some theories say that a young brain is
more resilient; others say that it may be more vulnerable.
Many climbers take exception to the publicity surrounding Team Jordan. Everest
climber Todd Burleson summed it up by saying, “He’s got his whole life to climb
Everest. Being the youngest boy to climb is a fashionable, celebrity-oriented sort of
thing. But it’s not about the mountains. It’s like trying to get your PhD at ten.” Paul
Romero claims that he is fully aware of the risks. There is a fine line between
encouraging Jordan and pushing him too far, he says. He talked about the point where
Jordan might have “reached his maximum mentally, physically, and where the risk has
become too high.” He said, “Jordan has just not even come close to that point yet.”
And what about Jordan, now that he has accomplished his goal of climbing the
seven summits before his 16th birthday? Unsurprisingly, he has a new mission. He calls
it Find Your Everest. In 2012 Team Jordan set out to encourage young people to be
active and healthy and to pursue their own adventures. In the process, he is inviting
young people to join him in climbing the highest peak in each state. (They range from
Denali or Mount McKinley at 20,320 feet to Florida’s greatest height—345-foot-high
Britton Hill!)
“I feel good about what my parents have taught me about setting goals,” Jordan
says. And now he wants to spread that message to others.

QUESTION:
The article opens with the question, "Can parents go too far in supporting their children's dreams?" Answer this question as it relates to the Romeros, evaluating the strength of the claims offered. Be sure to cite evidence in your response.