Occasionally I read Ask Moxie, but grudgingly so; her posts on sleep got me through the night (har, har) when Matthew was a baby. I started my sourness on her when that Dangerous Book for Boys came out and she came up with her own list that made my eyes roll madly. But she’s still in my RSS feed, and then today’s post made my eyes fall out of my head.

link

The fall before you want your child to start (and here they start either at 2 1/2 or 3 1/2), you start requesting applications. (You should already have done your research on which schools you want to apply to through a combination of reading the NYC preschool guidebooks, researching online, and talking to everyone you meet at the playground.) Some schools have applications downloadable from their websites, while the ones that really do enjoy being competitive force you to call and get on a list to have the app mailed to you. (If you call too late and they’ve run out of applications, too bad for you.) You fill out the application, which can be as simple as filling in the facts and writing a few two-paragraph descriptions of your child and your educational goals for your child, or as extensive as six one-page essays on any number of topics.

Insane. Starting the competitive pressure crap so young. And not to mention classist - I can’t imagine a situation where the single mom with 2 jobs is doing all of that to get their kid into a preschool.

It starts here, people. When people complain about affirmative action and how students are coming to school ill-prepared and unable to compete - this is why: because we’re starting the rat race when some kids are 2 1/2. Insane.