While waiting in a doctor’s office this morning — one that had good magazines, by the way — I stumbled upon a back issue of Newsweek. This particular article was an interesting and shocking read, especially after my visit to that scary preschool (see previous entry).

Read on — The New First Grade: Too Much, Too Soon?

And an excerpt from the article:

Brian And Tiffany Aske of Oakland, Calif., desperately want their daughter, Ashlyn, to succeed in first grade. That’s why they’re moving—to Washington State. When they started Ashlyn in kindergarten last year, they had no reason to worry. A bright child with twinkling eyes, Ashlyn was eager to learn, and the neighborhood school had a great reputation. But by November, Ashlyn, then 5, wasn’t measuring up. No matter how many times she was tested, she couldn’t read the 130-word list her teacher gave her: words like “our,” “house” and “there.” She became so exhausted and distraught over homework—including a weekly essay on “my favorite animal” or “my family vacation”—that she would put her head down on the dining-room table and sob. “She would tell me, ‘I can’t write a story, Mama. I just can’t do it’,” recalls Tiffany, a stay-at-home mom.