[SomeCallMeTim]

Even though I consider US public schools borderline child abuse for holding kids back to keep up with the slowest kids, and for excessive to meaningless praise, I don't think reading the rest of the article and discovering that the kids did in fact overcome the challenges will make me feel it's EVER OK to dump a kid into a situation like that.

Kids are resilient. If it doesn't kill them, it can make them stronger. That doesn't mean that I believe it's OK to torture them in order to make them stronger. The ends don't justify the means.

It frankly ISN'T the competitiveness that troubles me. Not in the slightest. It's dropping the kids into a school where they can't understand ANYTHING, nor can they be understood, that strikes me as cruel and unusual. It's one thing to do that to someone who WANTS it. Kids have very little control over their lives, though, and forcing that on a kid (except when there is really no choice) is just wrong.

Especially since the PREMISE is wrong: Kids simply don't learn foreign languages faster and easier than adults. They learn them at a deeper level (different brain structures), so that they can eventually learn to speak a language as a native, but it takes as long or longer than an adult learning the same language for them to become proficient.

[SomeCallMeTim]

Wow, downvotes with no response? In what way was this message not adding to the conversation?

Not that I didn't expect it, since so many HN readers seem to disagree.