Kids have too much homework these days. High school students are taking too many advanced classes. And all children are way too overscheduled. These sentiments may sound right to upper-middle-class parents, whose stressed-out children attend the nation's elite public and private school. But they just aren't true for American kids as a whole. As reported by the Washington Post over the weekend, a new study busts the third in this trilogy of misconceptions. It turns out that busy children do very well in school and in life. It's the kids without structured activities who suffer the most.
This shouldn't really surprise us. Children with no access to sports or drama or boy scouts or church youth group or 4-H or any of the plethora of extra-curriculars offered by American society come from families either lacking money or social capital or both. (OK, perhaps some parents opt for a structure-free childhood for their kids on principle, but I doubt their numbers are large. I too believe in time for free play, but my son already attends three structured activities a week and he's not even a year yet.)
And it just might be these extra-curricular activities that explain why America continues to lead the world economically even though we trail the developed world educationally. (See more on that here.)
The adage "everything in moderation" is apt here too, and thankfully it appears that most American families are already following that advice quite well, thank you very much.
