Why the Rush?

By Jennifer Gerdes Borek

Not too many years ago, a friend called me in tears. She had just returned from a "mother's day out" group, and while the children were playing, the conversation had quickly turned competitive. One mother's child had toilet- trained at six months. Another's was already swimming laps at barely a year. "Dylan is only 18 months old," my friend sobbed, "and he's already behind."

I have thought about this vignette as my own children have grown, and I've had my own experiences with competitive parents. While it is unsettling to have people try to convince me that their child is the smartest/fastest/most talented person on the planet, my primary concern is about how their attitude affects their child—and how it affects overall school policy.

I would never want a child to believe that the love of his parents was contingent on his performance in some activity. Similarly, I would never want us to base school policy on the misguided notion that if we can teach children to do things younger, we should .