I think this very well might be the case. I have a friend of mine who found an article about some school that started gifted programs in kindergarten. She was going on a rant about how "wrong" this was. Here's the kicker. She's gifted. She doesn't have any kids yet so I couldn't help but think just wait until you have kids and then you might very well be changing your tune... But I do agree. I know from my own experience, many time these half-hearted pull-out programs can do more harm than good.
Before our youngest was born, DH and I would say "None of that academic stuff for our kids before they start school! Kids should be doing finger painting and playing and stuff like that up until they're 5!"
Fast forward through time: our 3 1/2 year old toddled up one day and looked at us with his big eyes and said, "Can you teach me to wead? I want to leawn how to wead." Turned out he already knew the sounds the letters make, what vowels were, etc. etc.
So we started reforming our opinions pretty quickly after that.
Val
