Sarah Lawrence One of the most important duties of parents is to help their children to discover and pursue new interests, retaining the love of learning that is almost universal in young children and almost universally extinct in conventionally educated adults. Standardised curricula, and the stultifying educational hoops that schoolchildren have to jump through, sabotage this aim. For instance, they may keep diaries of educational activities or portfolios of their children's work.
Education then becomes performance.
For many children, this will be enough to change the focus of their endeavours from genuine learning to performance. If parents don't keep their work, they won't be able to see how far they have come. Being motivated by either is equally harmful. Children's work should remain their own private property, not to be seen by anyone unless they want to show it. In that case, the parents are manipulating their children by the implicit threat of withholding that affection or attention.