I applaud you, Todd. Seems like not many parents know WTF to do with their kids these days, but you definitely have your stuff together.
Teaching to the test IS beating the creativity out of kids. I think that's actually been somewhat known for awhile. Cauchy, the great mathematician, showed wonderful promise as a young boy, and a friend of the family urged the father to keep young Cauchy away from formal mathematical instruction, lest it destroy his intuition and creativity.
How's this for teaching to the test? A girl in my Multi-Variable Calculus class got a 90 something on the exam. She asks me, 2 classes later, if I could explain what a Line Integral is. Funny, that's what the TEST was over. She got a 90, I got a Bad Grade, and here she didn't even comprehend that material. WTF?
I wish my parents (and teachers, and guidance counselors...) would have been more like, Todd. I do have to give some credit, though, as my parents never told me what they think I should because they didn't want to influence me. The public school system and the onslaught on "what do you want to do to make money" questions did enough damage, though....
I'll give your thread back now. Synopsis: Todd is the man
