I actually was wondering this question in the afternoon after reading the post about "genius in 28 steps." I started to feel my motivation for early education is for myself, not for my baby. There was a survey done a few years ago in China about the so called genius students versus normal students. The students were all coming from a top university. The difference is that genius students were enrolled before they were 15. 20 years later, there are no accomplishment difference between genius students and normal students. However the genius students have more emotional and social problems.  Take my own personal life encounters. My husband entered college at 13, graduated at 16 with three degrees, got master degree at 17, entered phD program at 18. He is not social, and in fact he does not know well how to be social. And so are his friends. Most of his friends are about the same level of intelligence. Believe me, they are so full of themselves. I certainly do not want my son has same "problem" like my husband. I always joke him a sheep with wolf skin.  I am a normal person with above average intelligence and most people are just like me. It give me great joy to be able to relate to other people and make sense of normal life. I want my son able to see the beauty of normal life and normal people too and at least find beauty in relationships.

When you are so much younger than your classmates or so much superior to them, you could not relate to them and the result is that you missed the opportunity to develop emotional intelligence and social skills.

If early education produced a real genius like Einstein, then early education is useful. So far it seems to me that kids just get ahead of their peers a few years ahead. Well they started to earn salary earlier. I guess.

By saying that I do not mean I shall not educate my son at all. But I do mean that I probably shall not follow the academic way of education. Like reading, maths, writing, etc. Rather I shall give him a relative interesting environment and let him loose. I spent more than 10 hours in the closet this week with my two years old son. I do not understand why he likes to stay in the closet appears doing nothing, but I chose to believe that he must have his own valid reason and desire to do so. For that I honor it and I follow his desire. Who knows better about his own desire and passion than himself?

I know my post will offend lots of people. It contradict with my own earlier desire too.