Are our children being pushed too hard?

Question

Children these days seem to be pushed too hard. High school kids are taking college courses while in their senior year. Young kids seem to have more responsibilties because mom and dad work too much. What ever happened to being a kid?

Answer 1

Some children are pushed, my wife was a teacher and has taught some ‘pushed’ kids as you describe. She did not like the fact they were ‘pushed’ by their parents to absurd levels of performance to their personal detriment in other areas. They are, however, a small minority. The reality is that kids, overall, are gaining weight and leading a much more sedentary lifestyle than 20 years ago, and its not from sweating over books, its from TV, mobile phones and video games. Do they have more responsibilities? Dear, we ALL have more responsibilities, I am old enough to remember the day when a ‘password’ was something only a secret agent or a kids cubby house club would have, and a PIN number was the size of my grannies sewing needle. They are not responsibilities; they are increasingly sophisticated necessities in dealing with the modern world.

Answer 2

Many factors must be taken into consideration when looking at achievement levels at schools. Due to continued cutbacks the education of children has decreased continually over a long period. It's definitely NOT the teachers who should get the blame, although there are probably some more suited to accountancy than teaching. However, trying to solve this problem by introducing test; more expense, more paperwork, less time to teach or prepare lesson material, was stupid beyond measure. Provide a school with the correct equipment and keep the class sizes small enough and any child can achieve anything (within reason). Offering rewards to children would help to reduce disruption in classes. Converting the resources required to help children succeed into the money needed to test them is madness.

Answer 3

This is one of the stupidest questions I've seen so far on Yahoo Answers. Compared to children of previous generations of Americans, our children are not being pushed hard. They're soft. They're fat. They have time on their hands. The don't have to work if they don't wanna. They have premarital sex and they play video arcade games.

A hundred years ago, a 12 year old boy had enough responsibility in him to handle guns, and he knew how to use them for hunting and in defense of his family. Today, you can't trust most 17 year old boys to keep a secret, if telling it will make him feel important for five minutes.

Children are not being pushed too hard. Their grades have been going DOWN, not up, since 1964. The standards, academic and moral, to which they are held have been lowered again and again, until today they are almost meaningless.

And you think children are being pushed too HARD?

Answer 4

Only a tiny minority of students are pushed too far. The majority of kids are not pushed at all! And they end up without high school degrees.

Arizona has a 50% high school dropout rate. Nowadays, I think kids are the laziest they have ever been! And it shows in our current work force. Companies can't find halfway decent talent to do any high level, skilled positions anymore. A lot of companies, like Microsoft, are actually creating their own high schools, so that they can teach kids themselves, and ensure a talented workforce for the future years.

I think it's the other way around. Our education system doesn't push kids hard enough to achieve their potentials!

Answer 5

Yes and No. I'm 15, so you're getting this from someone still in school, and well to me we have a lot more to deal with than when you were younger, and in order to be prepared for our role in the world we need to know a lot. BUT there should be a limit, and line drawn. The reason for kids wanting to grow up so fast has nothing to do with their education but more with how they are raised and the media today. If anything take the freaking tv away. Theres nothing wrong with wanting to make your kids smart, but theres a difference between teaching and just piling up the homework and hoping the kid will understand it. That's what many of the teachers do, I really think that they shouldn't have homework, I mean we go to school for 6 hours and then they make us stay up until 10 or later doing stuff we don't get because the teacher is incompetent. We need better teachers and methods. Now I am also going to point something else out, kids don't take their education seriously. I go to school with so many pot heads and kids who skip its not even funny. Parents need more control over there kids and they need them to understand the importance of a good education, whether you want go to college or not. I hope that helped you a little :D

Answer 6

I am treated like a person with three heads because I only have my kids involved in one thing at a time! I am not trying to raise any superkids, just some good, honest people. There are nights where one kid's soccer or one kid's music running late, ends up keeping them up with homework til 10. I honestly feel bad for my son sometimes because he rarely gets to lie around and watch tv!!! I don't know what the H*LL is wrong with people! I didn't decide to have children so that I'd have something to brag about!

Answer 7

Are you kidding me? Kids here in America (I'm assuming you ARE American) have it so easy..it's not even funny.
In most other countries (even those that Americans like to call "underdeveloped...) kids are studying way more than we are. In Spain (that's where I'm from, althought I've become a U.S. citizen since then), there are 8 grades for school. The way they do it is...all the general subjects (math, language, foreign language, science, etc...) are taught at a more advance level...the differnce being that we don't have any electives (i.e.: electrical shop, sewing class, cooking, typing, ROTC, etc...).
Americans always want the easy way out....you've heard of the "no kis left behind" program? Many schools now requires that kids get advanced throught grades when a certain age is obtained...whether the kids knows how to read or not!
There's also another school program being used where kids don't get a letter grade on their report cards...only passing or failing. All this is done because parents "don't want to hurt the kids feelings when other kids get better grades".
Are you kidding me? Tell them to study their butts off, then!!
So, in response to your question....NO WAY!!

Answer 8

The problem isn't that they're being pushed too hard, or that they're having more and more responsibilities being given them, the problem is that those over the age of 13 arent' being given the rewards that go along with those responsibilities. They are certainly puished as adults when they make mistakes. If you're going to expect these epople to behave like adults, the let them make ALL adult decisions, or stop expecting them to behave in a more mature and adult manner.

Answer 9

I would have to agree with you. Knowing how things are these days, I allow mine to be kids still. They have homework with school (elementary) but it isn't a whole lot so the majority of the time, we are outside or just being a family indoors. I don't push my kids into being older, I already miss them being younger than they are now (6 & 8). I am also a stay at home mom so they don't have to worry about being alone or having to do more chores than the normal kid.

Answer 10

You know....I wish I knew. As a teacher I watch so many kids being rushed here and there and don't have a chance to be a kid and have free time. I am trying so hard not to give in to the temptation of getting my kids over involved so they have enough of a chance to crash and be a kid.