[CamperBob2]

Oh wow, I thought Americans were super lax when it came to this

It's hard to generalize here, as Americans are a heterogeneous bunch. Demographic subsets exist where education is seen as a vigorous competitive sport, where the goal is to achieve admission to the "right" college. The parents are as involved as the kids, usually for better but sometimes for worse.

At the same time, among other groups of Americans, the goal is simply for kids to reach adulthood without too much interaction with the police. You can't draw sweeping conclusions that will cover the entire spectrum.

[seanmcdirmid]

Ya, I assume Americans are all over the map so to speak. Anyone who wants to go to MIT, however, has to start early.