It seems incredibly cruel to the child to be pushed so aggressively. Why any parent would want to make their child look more gifted than they naturally are is a total mystery to me. The underlying message is, "You are unlovable just the way you are." That breaks my heart!
Now, on the finer point of "what is following a child's lead", I think there are many shades of gray. The tension between wanting to support your child's natural inclination for learning and trying not to have these interests crowd out simpler, more age-typical interests presents a real challenge. One the one hand, your child is ravenous for information. But, on the other hand, you know that your child needs exercise, free play, time to muck around outside, etc. In what instances do you say yes to the book/experiment/study, and in which ones do you insist on splashing around in puddles? Knowing what is in the best interests of your child can be difficult to gauge even for the most well-intentioned parents.
For instance, did my son wake up one day and say, "I want to watch the DARPA challenges"? No, but he has an innate fascination with robotics, and I had a hunch that the new generation of military humanoid robots would tickle his fancy. If he gets too hung up on talking about Petman and Atlas, I unilaterally decide we need a park break (acting out imaginary scenarios with the aforementioned robots as characters is copacetic in downtime.)
