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This is what I figured out after watching the system for 12 years as a parent. Many, many parents are being practical by pushing their kids into sports from a young age. Why? To get them a scholarship to college. Boys, especially, who aren't achieving high grades in school, can go to college thru sports. Girls, too. The cost of college is enormous, especially for families with more than one kid. The thing that bothered me most is that all of these families are sold on the idea that their kids have to go to college. Very sad. And equally sad is that the kids who are average could be doing much better work in school if only taught in the old school style.

This all leaves me with the question--Why is anyone having kids at all if their goal is to push them out as early as possible? People used to have kids to help out on the farm or in the family business but it was all family oriented. Not today--it is selfishness, the politically correct thing to do and yet at the same time demand the PUBLIC school teach to all learning levels. Public school should be teaching to the average and the parents of the students above and below that average should be responsible for anything MORE they want. It is not society's obligation unless these same folks want to admit they are politically correct in their demand that "Special" treatment is an entitlement. All are treated equal--All are NOT equal!!

That is life.

Competition is the driving force (perpetuated by the Sports programs) but who and what are these kids competing with and for--they don't even know--it is the parents that are competing to be best, first, most, the cheapest, easiest, etc. And I agree--all do not need and are not college material.

All I can say is it gives me great joy to see my 4 year old grandson ride his trike down the sidewalk without a care in the world. His mother is holding him from school until he is 6--I am grateful. I only wish she would home school. Only a few years of innocences. It is so short and becoming shorter all the time. My grandson has a lifetime to put his nose to the grind stone (whatever it may be) and I don't believe the pressure is as necessary as the parents make it out to be. The little years are when they can be innocent, ignorant and free. Society even wanting to take that time from them is selfish and more importantly self-centered. It makes my heart ache with sadness that my grandson will have to face 90 years (if he is lucky) of hard labor as his future?

The little years are when they can be innocent, ignorant and free.

Those little years, as you call them, are more significant to their future than school, at least in my opinion. The kid who knows the pure joy of running out the door to play baseball, ride his bike, hike in the woods or whatever, is a kid better along the way to a fulfilling life than the one who taught to read at age 4.

Look at what's gone on over the last decade or two. We now seem to have the most legally drugged student population in history, performing at historic lows, suffering from obesity at a horrible rate, piled with homework and too many extracurricular expectations. All in pursuit of a well rounded life.