My daughter started kindergarten this week. I am pleased, proud, and terrified that she's doing so at a public school here in San Francisco.

She likes her teacher well enough, and so far no one has beaten the crap out of her, but still she has already realized that kindergarten is not as fun as preschool. After the first two days she confessed that she'd rather not go.

I pulled her aside and explained that she'd need to keep going to school like this for about 13 years. Then, there was college, which was more fun, but was also harder. Then, after that, you spend nearly the rest of your life working at some boring job. I socked her lightly on the arm and told her to buck up. Death rescues us all eventually, I cooed.

Ok, I didn't do or say any of those things, but that's what I was thinking. Instead, my wife made some nice-nice and said some encouraging things. Makes me wonder at what point you explain the drudgery of life though. Is that covered in elementary school or does this burden fall to the parents? What are they teaching these kids?