I am certainly in favor of children learning sports skills and playing sports--anything to get them away from the TV and computer and get them moving. However, their sports participation, especially at very young ages ought to be low key and only for fun.
On July 29, USA Today published this story, Could this 5-year old be the future of tennis? about five-year-old tennis prodigy Jan Silva. Jan's family sold their house, its content and two cars in Ranch Cordova, CA, and moved to France, so that Jan could live and train full-time--will all the family's expenses paid--at the Mouratoglu Tennis Academy near Paris. The academy is hoping to benefit from the prestige if Jan becomes a star, and Jan's patron Patrick Mouratoglu obviously hopes to become Jan's agent in that case.
The parents insist that it will be OK if Jan does not want to continue. However, I wonder how realistic is the idea that Jan can leave the academy and tennis altogether if he wants to. It would be a natural reaction for the parents and Mouratoglu to resist firmly a change of heart by Jan.
I think it is absolutely wrong to place an actual or potential burden like that on a five-year old.
By the way USA Today received 173 comments on the story--most not at all sympathetic to the move by the Silvas.
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