I want to say that the obvious answer is to just set up another orchestra for the kids who started playing "late" at ages 8 or 9. But, that's not the real problem, is it?

On the one hand, I can see the point made by the Suzuki-at-age-3 parents. On the other hand...Suzuki at age 3? I wonder how many of this stuff is designed around IVY LEAGUE SCHOOL! application fodder for fulfilling the "pointy-yet-all-around-achiever" requirement. eek

And yet, competition for top-tier schools is insane and discriminatory in a large number of ways (legacies, athletes, children of the powerful and famous, minorities, foreign/out-of-state students who pay much more at public colleges, big-donor kids, famous kids...), so parents without one of these hooks are probably trying to help their kids get an advantage (as defined by the parents). And the economy is a mess, so people are stressed. Add it up and you get behavior akin to a siege mentality.

Ick. Personally, I prefer the kind of system where everyone takes ONE exam which is the SAME exam administered at the SAME TIME and university admissions are driven by points on said exam. Prince William had to get enough points on his A-levels to get into his desired program at St. Andrews, and that was that.

But a system like that would be way too transparent for the United States and way too impervious to gaming and we can't have that, because if we did, we couldn't discriminate have a "diverse" student body, so we need to make up reasons about how transparent admissions systems are anathema to American education.

And so we pile on the homework and the activities and the pressure, starting at age 3 in some cases, and wonder why 15-year-olds get inspired to step in front of trains. And when people like me make this complaint, we're seen as making trouble or being too cynical. And when another teenager kills himself, the "solution" is to bring in "counselors" and "the right to squeak." No one seems to want to address the real, fundamental problems here, which all derive from pervasive and very serious inequality in American society (including college admissions).