This I have known - Finally I see in print my own thesis on the dropping of what I call the "age of experience."
For many years I have been saying that the age of experience of young people today has been dropping. Children are not given the chance to be children like I was. I remember when we would play in the street, when we'd walk to school, when we'd play sport or not, when we'd go to the park and play for hours, or walk down through the bush to the creek to spend the day.
'To the parents, teachers and peers of Australia, give us a break. We deserve to have a life too. We shouldn't have to constantly feel the pressure to succeed.' Claire Hunter, 13
"It's as if we are requiring children at a younger and younger age to make decisions about their adulthood," Kid's Helpline's manager of research, Ms Wendy Reid.
Now kids are seemingly just a pawn in the commercialisation and compartmentalisation of life. There is no room for playing as such. There needs to be a focus, a reason, a purpose in everything. And we're seeing 10 to 15 per cent of young people diagnosed with depression - what an indictment.
"These are the best years," says Jake Cochrane, 15, of Plumpton High. "I want to stay young for sure. There's not as many responsibilities."
For James Pretty, "we are just young and we want to have fun". Yet, "you have to be the best in whatever you want to do ... You have no fun." [SMH]
Kids play sport today ultimately for their parents. So they [the parents] can complain about how much of their weekend is taken up driving here and driving there, so they can boast to their friends about little Johnnies team, but essentially so they can live out their own pitiful ambitions through their children.
The "tyranny of shoulds and musts" is weighing down on some adolescents' shoulders, says Dr Tony Kidman, director of health psychology at the University of Technology Sydney. Teenagers think they should - and must - do well at school, to top their class and perform the best. When this is not achieved they can sometimes become depressed, which 10 to 15 per cent of teenagers suffer.
My experience is not confined to observation. I head up a children's camping program in NSW for kids aged five through seventeen. Many of the activities we offer and the skills we teach are systematically being offered to younger and younger kids through school and "organised birthday" parties.
For example, abseiling [rapelling] used to be the domain of the 16 or 17 year old. Just a few years back it was a new and exciting activity for older teens. Now kids as young as 7 or 8 are going abseiling at school camps.
Don't get me started on sex, drugs or even television, because I'll cite statistics on depression, suicide, abortion, disease etc.
"We get started too early on our future careers." Justin Hancock, year 9 student.
As a society we need to pause and just take a moment to notice what we are doing, and to ask ourselves "who we are doing it for?" Ultimately it is not for the kids. It is a treadmill being driven by the marketing arms of commercial organisations seeking to sell more product.
Why do we let it continue?
Maybe it's because we are too lazy to think up our own entertainment. We'd rather be herded like sheep [to the slaughter]. Just note the amount of sport on television. Why do it when you can watch others be paid to do it for you...
7:34:05 AM 
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