Big Arm Woman runs into some hyperparenting:
And high-energy mom was seriously talking about enrolling her four-year-old in a Sylvan program over the summer to prepare him for Kindergarten. Jesus squared, people. Seriously. He's FOUR. He doesn't require grammatical remediation or fluency in a foreign language, although sitter-girl does teach them Spanish. In the current situation, he's gonna go to Kindergarten able to do letters, numbers, and to write his name. He'll be able to label both colors and body parts in two languages. He'll know how to use a computer--if he's in a public school, he's gonna be thrown in with kids who can't even do that. And most importantly, he'll have spent a decent portion of his childhood having fun. Remember fun? And childhood? Remember that?
Sylvan is taking advantage of parents' anxieties:
The national tutoring chain has expanded since January [2005] to include
students as young as 4 as pre-kindergarten students — part of an
increase in tutoring nationwide that analysts attribute to parents
eager to push their children to the front of the class.
[snip]
Sylvan's pre-K sessions target basic reading and math skills, such
as identifying the beginning, middle and end of a phrase; what sound
each letter makes; how to hold a pencil properly; and identifying
numbers.
If you need your kid to have those skills, shouldn't you be playing with him or her to see that the fun play builds those skills?
"Hyperparenting is now the most prevalent form of child-rearing in
America among the middle and upper-middle class," says [Alvin] Rosenfeld,
co-author of a new book, Hyper-Parenting: Are You Hurting Your Child by Trying Too Hard? (St. Martin's Press, $22.95).
" 'Start early enough and be intense enough, and you can raise a Tiger Woods.' . . . It's so unbalanced. It's a madness."
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