there is a lot in the parenting literature about the value of play, the necessity of down time, free play etc, and the horrors of overscheduling one's child. inevitably, the author waxes nostalgic about their own childhood, evenings spent roaming the neighborhood, no adults in sight, etc. apparently, in the 60s and 70s, the world was a much easier place to be a child. fair enough--i do remember doing things without parental supervision that i would never ever dream of letting my kids do on their own--things like taking long bike rides with my friends, and going to cedar's country store by way of several corn fields and a couple trails through the woods. we had a lot of freedom, sure. it was different then and it was ok to do that. however, i think this retrospective phenomenon in the various books i have read is a little rosy. the next comparison they usually make is the school system and the pressure we put on today's kids to learn and excel way too early, we expct too much etc etc. and in many respects, we do--particularly with the testing debacle that is raging. and then the next thing that gets hauled before the court are all the extracurricular activities we are subjecting our kids to -- as if they did not exist efore the 90s. sure, some did not--like girl's ice hockey. and the soccer thing is definitely a new development.

however. all i have to say to this is go to your local library and find the "very young..." series. do you remember those books? "a very young rider," "a very young dancer," "a very young skater," and so on. i believe there is a gymnast one too. read them. the 10 year-old skater takes LATIN. hello??? does anyone, anywhere take latin these days? is it even an option? all of these little girls have utterly gruelling schedules. they all practice at their chosen sport for hours and hours and hours every day. the warm up for the dancer -- WARM UP -- was an entire hour of barre work. then her regular class started. she was in 19 performances of the nutcracker over the course of a month and she still went to school. the rider happily gets up at 4 am and does all of her chores, then goes to school where her favorite subject is math. MATH! a girl loves MATH! in the 1970s! wait a minute--haven't we been reading study after study that says girls don't like math and have not excelled in math because of all sorts of bias that leads them to dislike it and give up? and that we have to solve that problem? (of course, some university presidents believe we are genetically incapable of math and science, and that is certainly a real if not ludicrous problem) where do we get these conclusions? i mean, i know she is one kid, but one that by virtue of being showcased in a book has a certain influence. and the skater takes something like 4 classes a day. (and you should see what the mothers concoct with their sewing machines....)

anyway, my point is this: we may or may not be overscheduling and overtaxing and overpressuring our children. it is certainly a possibility, and it does appear that way. but i don't think the problem is in challenging kids, and pushing them and expecting things of them. it can be clearly argued that in the past we pushed and challenged and expected a lot more. (and in the even more distant past, it was even harder to get through school--take a look at curricula from the turn of the century. do you know all that grammar? grandma, you are exempted from that question). i have a sneaky feeling it is the end result that we are expecting of kids in the present. are we pushing them because they want to excel at something? because we feel that it is a valuable thing as a human being to know latin? because that knowledge will yeild a more interesting life? or are we doing all of this pushing and challenging and driving and testing because we want them to have a string of accomplishments by which they can be deemed successful? in other words, perhaps the problem is that the issues inherent in all the pressure to acquire an exemplary resume is obscuring the value of challenging one's self, and mind and body.

the real bummer is that the backlash against this achievement-driven culture is neglecting to differentiate here, and it will probably be a long time before someone says "hey! wouldn't it be a great idea to incorporate latin into our 4th grade curriculum?"

moreover, it is really rritating to see history re-written and to lead people to believe that school was a lot easier, girls hated math, women were this huge subjugated masse, kids were never prssured, etc. this does a huge injustice to the people who did not fit these nice neat historical-theory-categories. perhaps the majority created the stereotype, but it is just not that simple.