I'll add that the pressure starts very young, at least around here. When my daughter was in the hospital for an appendectomy a few months ago, her roommate (a kindergartner!) was doing homework in the hospital while she still had IV lines in her arm. frown The little girl's mom said that if she didn't keep up, she'd get too far behind. This five-year-old was expected to write paragraph-length journal entries every day as homework, and she had a variety of worksheets she had to do. She attended a local public school, not a prep school.

I once called a local high performing public school in our district because I was thinking of putting my son's name in for their kindergarten lottery. I changed my mind after they told me that kindergartners were given a minimum of an hour of homework every night.

So again, it all seems aimed at making everyone look highly gifted.

But I'll also add that the schools (including the colleges) add to the problems. The tiger parents are bad and so are many of the schools.