Whatever happened to the good old days when kids actually had a childhood without a care in the world? Nowadays it seems like young kids are practicing for the SATs right after they learn their ABCs.

Everywhere you look there is pressure to do well; it’s an inescapable fact of life. Yet up until recently, tremendous pressure to succeed did not directly affect kids who were younger than high school age.

With every new generation of children walking down the long hallways of their schools, the workload seems to be increasing. There is no need to put this pressure on young kids. With changing curriculums and added pressure from parents, teachers and administrators, young students are becoming overwhelmed with work.

Parents, please hear me out on this one: let your kids live their lives. How hard they study when they are 8 or 9 years old or even 12 years old will not determine whether they get into that prestigious university. Life goes fast, too fast to be stressed over a schedule of all ridiculous honors level classes and bogged down in middle school, with three or more hours of homework a night.

College education is not necessary in 7th grade. However it appears that even some middle school students have bought into the conspiracy,

“You need to be prepared for this sort of stuff because it’s a really important part of your life,” said Henry Brazer, an 8th grade student at North Bethesda Middle School.

When I was in middle school, it wasn’t about struggling to do 50 math problems a night, it was more like stressing over having to field a team for the daily after school pick-up basketball game. Yet, the early age brainwashing seems to be working because the students seem to be buying into the idea.

“I think the [college prep] class was good because it gave me information that I could use in the future,” said Brazer.

A weekly college prep class in middle school is such an unnecessary stressor for young students. College is something that teenagers should worry about, not middle school students.

Growing up is about new experiences both good and bad. Receiving a poor grade on a vocabulary quiz is not the end of the world. With every mistake comes life lessons that are way more important to a kid than studying that extra hour for the science test.

More important lessons could be learned such as proper nutrition, in an age of diabetes and widespread morbid obesity. I believe there is a direct correlation between childhood obesity, the problems that come from it and the mentality of constantly being inside that parents instill in their children. If young children spend most of their childhood indoors studying, what will make them go outside and exercise when they are older? This is the first time that the new generation’s life expectancy will be shorter than the preceding one. Obesity is an epidemic and staying inside all day doing homework is not the way to stop it. Kids need to break up the workload so they can still get the much needed physical activity that is so crucial to a healthy life.

Let young kids live their lives because once they get to high school, the pressure will be there. Childhood is a time to go outside and run wild, not be forced to stay in a cave of a room with only your textbooks keeping you company.