"Excellent!!"

I believe that it is our fear of failure that makes us pressure our children to excel and be nothing less than excellent.

With that much more ‘excellence’ around every generation, the bar has been pushed higher and higher since the 1970s: more homework, more exams, more exclusive (and expensive) schools...

Children lose their childhood years to memorizing random facts and cramming for one test after the other - and I am not just talking about China.

But why do we seem so nervous about the future of our gene pool? Why the clenched teeth and pulled up shoulders? Is it maybe because at the age of 38 we as parents feel outsmarted? Is it because we already are being out-competed by somebody only ten years younger who is willing to apply his IT conditioned brain for even longer hours?

I admit it can be scary, but fear has rarely proved to be a good guide for decision-making.

As it is we are ruining our lives and those of our children by dedicating the few precious years together to night time homework, tutoring, and pre- and post exam anxieties.

And the pressure is rising on homeschoolers as well. So far I am fairly resilient but I wonder how long my bastion of pig-headed opposition is going to to hold up. The force behind this insanity is pretty formidable.