i agree with

your comments on passion. But i do not see other way out, as I posted below. Unless one is lucky to have a super talent child in one particular area, most kids will still be evaluated, and SAT score is still a major factor (trust me, I hate it as well).

BTW, i do beleive most parents I know of knows the importance of "passion", especially after staying here for >1 year. The problem i see is many parents forget how important "hard working" is for one's career development. Even one child is vary talented and has a strong passion on something, if he wants to achieve something, he still need to work extremely hard to beat other genius. I believe that is true for all fiels, even for criminals.