Are you insane? I am not pushing my child.

My five year old daughter can read. She uses her abacus to do double digit addition and subtraction. She was held back an additional year because, as she says, "I missed the cut off". When we attend her pre K program, it is obvious that she is ahead of the rest of the children. I tell her that education is important, and that her "job", for the next several years, is to do well in school.
Someone told me that I am "making a mistake", because she will be "bored" and will not "behave" in school. I beg to differ. Nick Kristof's column in last Sunday's New York Times listed the finalists for the national science competition. Two names sounded "American".(maybe) The other children were all Indian or Asian. I am certain that their parents, who probably lived fifteen to an apartment, worked round the clock, and ate rice every day when they came to this country, would certainly never tell me that I shouldn't encourage my daughter to soar, and instead, clip her wings before she tries to fly.
We Americans have grown complacent. That's why the world is kicking our ass. It's easier, I suppose, to have a child who plods along with the other sheep. I tell Caroline that people with top grades get top jobs. Those who fail at school spend the rest of their lives wiping other people's asses. She says that's not for her.