School Stress
Across the Western world education has become big business, as parents clamour to prepare their child for today's competitive society. With babies being taught to read, has common sense gone out the window?
6-year-old Courtney shows off her reading skills: "I like the word 'ubiquitous'. It means everywhere". At the 'creme de la creme' nursery, toddlers study hard at their computers. As over-protective parents hover ever closer over their offspring, the phenomenon of 'helicopter parenting' is out of control. Leonore Skenazy was lambasted in the American press for letting her son travel to school unattended: "If you google me, I'm officially 'America's Worst Mother'". With playtime being halved in a bid to maximise learning time, and parents attempting to make their babies literate, experts warn the consequences could be devastating: "You can train a dog to recognise the word 'ball'. That dog won't go to Harvard".
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