I too think that balance is important … Those catty social cliques are a “distraction” in high school, but they live on in the adult workplace. I think it’s important to learn how to deal with those power games without being consumed by them.

Isolating your kids from frivolous “mainstream” pop culture doesn’t do them any favors either. How can you market to the mainstream culture without understanding it? How can you make sound investment decisions without understanding consumer sentiment and investor psychology?

And music lessons … that’s a subject for another post entirely. Suffice it to say that IMO piano is left-brained and single-threaded, while guitar is right-brained and multithreaded. If you want your kid to grow up with half a brain, restrict him/her to piano. Better yet, restrict them to classical works written by dead guys in powdered wigs and silk stockings.