Timesonline | Times2| Let's not push our children to the max

Opinion - Mary Ann Sieghart

The Times
October 12, 2006
Times 2

'Are you signing up your toddlers for Suzuki violin lessons? Supplementing the maths teaching at school with Kumon maths at home? Do you somehow fit the ballet, drama, judo and karate around football and chess club? The great news is: the latest research says this will all make your children do better in school! Well, it might or it might not. It will certainly turn them into exhausted, regimented automatons, so used to taking instruction that they would walk blindly off a cliff if their ballet teacher told them to. It will stunt their imaginations, leave them no time to themselves and teach them nothing about how to cope with boredom. [...]'

Washpost.com | The Rise of the Testing Culture

As Exam-Takers Get Younger, Some Say Value Is Overblown
By Valerie Strauss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 10, 2006; Page A09

' [...] Three- and 4-year-olds take spelling tests of such words as "I," "me" and "the," as well as math tests, from which they learn how to fill in a bubble to mark the right answer.
Test preparation for children barely out of diapers is hardly something [teacher Kisha] Lee learned while getting her education degree at the University of Maryland, she said. But it is what she says she must do -- for the kids' sake -- based on her past experience teaching in a Prince George's County elementary school.
"Kids get tested and labeled as soon as they get into kindergarten," said Lee, who runs the state-certified Alternative Preschool Solutions in Accokeek. "They have to pass a standardized test from the second they get in. I saw kindergartners who weren't used to taking a test, and they fell apart, crying, saying they couldn't do it.[...]'

This article is first in a series by the Washington Post.

AP | Doctors Urge More Playtime for Children

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 9, 2006
Filed at 1:13 a.m. ET

'CHICAGO (AP) -- Here's some soothing medicine for stressed-out parents and overscheduled kids: The American Academy of Pediatrics says what children really need for healthy development is more good, old-fashioned playtime.
Many parents load their children's schedules with get-smart videos, enrichment activities and lots of classes in a drive to help them excel. The efforts often begin as early as infancy.
Spontaneous, free play -- whether it's chasing butterflies, playing with ''true toys'' like blocks and dolls, or just romping on the floor with mom and dad -- often is sacrificed in the shuffle, a new academy report says. [...]'

Which brings me to a question: Is it true (or generally accepted) that free play is not stressful? -KDN