Childhood Achievement test

Horror and shock hung heavy in the room. Susan DeJarnatt had just told some friends that her fifth-grade daughter would not be shifting from the neighborhood school to a private one - or even to the more prestigious public magnet school downtown.

"In the silence you could just feel them thinking, 'How could she do that to her child?' " says the Philadelphia mother of two.

It's a tension played out in countless ways as parents try to navigate a maze of choices for their young children's development.

Some sign up for preschool slots before a child is even born and look for structured learning opportunities as early as they can. Others find themselves dizzied by that pace and worry that something valuable will be lost if their children don't have free time to play and daydream the way they did growing up. Still others feel pulled in both directions, depending on the messages coming at them from peers or the media.

The drive to push even the youngest students to reach their full potential - academically, athletically, artistically - sometimes turns into a fearful scramble among parents to get their children on the fast track, educators say. And some observers worry that it's taking the whole experience of school and childhood in directions no one intended.

Everyone's familiar by now with the sight of elementary school children rolling their heavy backpacks along the sidewalk. A study by the University of Michigan's Survey Research Center shows that the amount of homework assigned to 6- to 8-year-olds tripled between 1981 and 1997.

Extra lessons and classes are also on the rise. Commercial tutoring has become a $3 billion industry in the United States, partly because students who already get good grades are now expected to polish their skills even further. A few years ago, for instance, Japanese- inspired private Kumon math classes served primarily children who were doing poorly in math. Now, more and more parents are paying to send students with excellent skills, says Mike Shim, deputy general manger of the US East Regional Office of Kumon North America Inc. in Teaneck, N.J.

"[The parents] are telling us that it's more competitive out there, and they want their children to get a head start," Mr. Shim says.

SAT tutors talk of students as young as 13 bursting into tears because of the pressure to get into a good college.

Even the terminology and application procedures normally associated with college admissions are pushing down into the lowest grades.

A group set up to help shepherd Boston-area parents through the private-school process reminds them to seek out "safety schools" - even at the preschool level. And an administrator at a private school in the Boston suburbs says it's now not unusual to see art portfolios and videotapes of dance recitals attached to elementary school applications.

The overheated atmosphere surrounding private-preschool admissions hit the headlines recently with news that stock analyst Jack Grubman sent e-mails saying he traded willingness to boost AT&T stock for help in getting his twin daughters into the 92nd Street Y, a top preschool program in New York City. Mr. Grubman has since said the e-mails were just inflated claims designed to hype his reputation, but he was hardly alone in his sentiments that preschool can be as hard to get into as Harvard.

"I get parents who call and want to get their 7-month-old in the program," says Amy Flynn, director of the Bank Street Family Center at the Bank Street School of Education in New York. "Or they say, 'My 18-month-old is a genius and needs the stimulation.' "

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