i completely disagree with this. when i was four, my mom was bragging to the neighbour about how smart i was. She had bought a slew of activity books from pre k up to grade 2. they were all about vocab and number patterns, and they had really cool stickers you could punch out and lick and stick on the completed worksheets. i loved it alot!!
but mom was bragging, and the neighbour had a son who she thought was a bad apple. she told my mom to limit my exposure to learning bc she had let her son get ahead with booklearning and as a result now he was messed up.
my mom, being a young, single parent, took what she said to heart. i never was allowed to do activities from that book again, amd by the time i got to kindergarden, i was way above everyone else. looking back i dont think anyone bothered to notice cuz who really learns stuff in kindergarden? but the problems started in grade one, where the teacher strted teaching us to read and write, and do simple math. i was bored out of my fucking skull and demanded they put me back in kindergarden where at least the day was my own to do as i pleased. i had learned to read years ago.
i suffered through first few months of first grade, then moved schools. teacher didnt know what to do with me so left me alone. Se ond grade was nice, by then i had read everything in the kids se tion of the library and demandd to be allowed to read other stuff. teachers said no.
by third grade, had had enough of school...it was a waste of time. teachers passed me with a++s but my mom flunked me cuz i 'never did any work'.
i rebeled the following year, got myself expelled for convincing my teachers that i really was in fourth grade. i had finally made it into a class where they taught something i didnt know. they were talking about times tables...the six times...anyway, i was in a split three four class. got expelled, moved to a private school where they had actually learnt the sixth through tenth times tables in second grade. (which i missed as i was now in third- which further frustrated me).
spent the rest of my school life (univerisity included) hating my neighbour and blaming my mom. and trying to play catchup. im extreemly smart, but i have had the ability to selfconciously study conditioned out of me. i either read and understand, or i dont. i never learnt how to succesafully 'try' at a given subject that was difficult and yet master it....though i have tried to learn to try. the sitting still and opening the book is the hardest part. but once the book is open, the knowledge is mine.
to the point where i am currently interested in computer coding and quality auditing but lack the conviction that my interest (ie ability to study) will last long enough for me to follow through with it to completion.
bottom line....never EVER deny a kid the opportunity to exersize their brain. yes, ive beem burnt bad. yes, im trying to get over it, and yes, i do believe that school s more a babysitting service than a 'your going to need this and that fact inyour head in order to make logic out of adulthood. but even so....denying knowledge is a cruel thing....especially when it is done in the name of 'preserving childhood'.
p.s. i have made up for this a bit. each year or two i take up a new summer project. one year was pnysics, one was astronomy, one was indonesian and arabic. and now im pursuing computer science. but the past few subjects, while i understand what i know perfectly well, and it wasnt hard, they dont really interest me enough to justify the time it takes to think through the logic that is coded in the print. being the linguist i am, i cant just look at a bunch of symbols and see 2+2 equals 4. i have to follow the logic behind it each time i look. i read the statement, i follow the logic. aghh..nevermind. that example s too simple to do justice and its too complicated to explain how characters designate a symbol, that is shortform for words. most see the symbol and memorize the symbol's symbolic responce. i see the symbol, and read the logic printed in it, and then remember what the responce should be. anyway. im going to stop now. im off on a tangent. sorry.