My DD4 goes to in-home daycare with about 12 kids aged 0-5.
The woman who owns the daycare business (DDC for Dear Day Care?) does "school." The kids learn their colors and shapes, days of the week, counting (including odds/evens), etc. They also do tons of arts & crafts and learn about holidays. It's basically a pre-school (and she's an amazing teacher). The kids love it --- even the homework, which she prints from the web and which usually says "Kindergarten skills" at the bottom.
At some point, DDC decided to teach the basics of reading. All the kids learn their sounds and how to sound out words. Again, they seem to love it. No one "has" to go to school, but when DDC says "it's time for school," the kids table is always full and a few have to sit at the kitchen table.
My point is that I think that a lot of kids can learn skills well before they're supposed to according to educators. I don't see anything wrong with teaching them, even if they aren't asking for it themselves. In fact, if they like it, I think it's a good thing.
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I guess my issue with the term hothousing as I've seen it used here (not always, but sometimes) is that I see it as an accusation at people who are presumed to be acting out of selfish motives. Like I said, I don't know what others are thinking, and I think it's unfair to imply that "they're ruining it for us" as though there are two adversarial camps.
Again, my guess is that the reality is probably the 99th %ile+/rarity problem rather than something due to selfish hothousers.
(NB I'm sure there are people who force learning on their kids, just as their are people who make their kids miserable by making them compete at sports at a young age).
Val
