My kid did not do after school and weekend tutoring. She did accelerated math in CTY for years. That is what most Asian kids do. They attend accelerated programs on weekends, like Olympiad school here. They promote accelerated studies. I find in my discussions with European ethnic parents, that they just want their kids "to enjoy". My kid likes the social, can get distracted, fall down a hole on a test or something. And then she gets upset because she doesn't want a bad grade and then pushes and applies herself to bring up the grade. Less now that she is in a critical year. But she wants Harvard, she wants to get a PhD and do something in deep deep ocean stuff (which scares me personally going under water like that) but it would have been really easy to just let her ride the public school path, and those options would probably not be open to her. Not in today's world. I am an older parent. I had older parents. They went through the depression and WW2, left europe without anything but education and that was drilled into me. Education that provided a job. Engineering, medicine. And my late husband had a similar background and was a physician. He and I were totally in sync that you had to make education a priority. And it wasn't that she didn't have a childhood. There were a lot of Barbies and disney dresses. And for 2, 3 and 4 years of age, there was Disney world. Then there was the world and at 15 she has been to 7 continents. She has been to King Tut's tomb and to Tibet. She has "camped" on Antarctica and seen Moscow. She sails, been to regular camp, rides horses and a bunch of other stuff. I do not stand over her with a yardstick. She was a piano prodigy but when it was apparent she didn't love it, I allowed her to stop. I think it is the American (and I am also American) mentality to find education that is suppose to be provided, while the Asian mentality is that I will provide what isn't available. Hence, the Olympiad schools.
