A Running Start: How Play, Physical Activity and Free Time Create a Successful Child

What parent doesn't want their child to achieve and get a head start on the path to success? But, life today for young children has become a dress rehearsal for type-A adulthood— a competition to be the best. Parents have been led to believe that enrolling their kids full time in special classes, extracurricular academics, competitive sports, and other structured, high-commitment activities will give them an edge— leading to a pressure cooker environment that can interfere with kids' natural development. Young kids can spend their free time finger painting, playing in the sandbox, inventing games, and still turn out to be smart, talented, successful adults. In A Running Start, renowned educational expert Rae Pica looks at the many misconceptions under which today's parents are laboring.