Meanwhile, the media expands exponentially, bombarding us with information about child molesters, gang violence, murders and foreign wars. Modern life can sometimes seem right out of a bad science fiction movie.

For parents, the modern world can seem frightening. At the same time, children have more opportunities for enrichment than ever before.

Those of us more than a couple of decades old remember when there were only a handful of channels on television. We remember when mobile phones were the size of a shoebox. A video game could consist of nothing more than a white square bouncing back and forth across the screen and still provide hours of entertainment.

Those of us more than a couple of decades old remember a time when children climbed trees and walked to school alone.

Those days are long over. The modern child is growing up in a far different world.

Cowboys and Indians

Ann Kolb works as a registrar at Redwood Middle School. She has watched childhood change significantly since she grew up in Saratoga in the 1950s.

"We were free to go anywhere we wanted anywhere in town," she recalls. "There were tons of kids playing out on the streets. Today, kids spend much of their time in supervised activities. They have full schedules. They don't know anything different."

Kolb remembers walking home from school through the orchards that once covered much of the valley. She says back then children came home from school, ate a snack and then went outside to play. "We climbed a lot of trees. We played with dolls. We rode bikes everywhere. Everybody knew everyone. When the sun went down, someone would holler and we all went home."

Kolb remembers playing cowboys and Indians with the neighborhood children. Kick-the-can was a popular game on summer nights.

"It's not like we didn't tell our parents where we were going," she says. "If you didn't come home until after dark, it's not like you didn't get punished. You got punished, and you didn't do it again.

"We were expected to take care of ourselves. If you fell off your bike, it wasn't a catastrophe."

Kolb says children used to have a lot less homework, but this gave them time to read on their own, which they did voraciously.

"In my day, everyone sat down at the dinner table. The dinner table was sacred. I don't think it's that way anymore. Now it's given way to what your schedule is."

Ann Waltonsmith's family built a house in Saratoga after buying land here in 1949. "It was back in the Dark Ages," she says. "There were still farmers in Saratoga then. There were acres and acres of orchards with a few houses in between."

Waltonsmith remembers wandering off after school with her dogs. She remembers wading in the creeks and catching pollywogs.

"We had minimal supervision," she says. "I had a lot of time to think about life and explore the natural world."

Waltonsmith has raised three children, who are now all in their 30s. "They had more structure than I did, but much less than you see now. Now I see my daughter raising her son in the modern way, which is much more contained and much more managed."

Kolb says she sees PE instructors at Redwood Middle School telling children to put their iPods away. When the school bell rings after the last class of the day, children flip open their cell phones to see if their parents are waiting outside to pick them up. The cars are lined up in front of the school waiting, sometimes between 25 to 30 minutes, to shuttle children to after-school activities.

Kolb says a big difference from the past is the sheer number of vehicles on the road now. More vehicles per household cause more traffic on city streets, she explains. "When kids turn 16, they get a car. The huge dependence on vehicles has changed the atmosphere."

Instead of walking home, eating a snack and then going outside to play, children go to music lessons, to soccer practice and to gymnastics. "There's constant supervision," Kolb says.

"There are a lot more people now," Waltonsmith says. "Our fears have changed our parenting. It only takes one or two kids being hurt by a stranger, and then everybody clamps down. I see this happening all over. I think there has been a sea change."

The soccer moms

Lisa Finley grew up in Los Gatos and is now raising her two daughters, a high school student and an elementary school student, in Saratoga.

Every morning, Finley walks her younger daughter, Sarah, to Argonaut Elementary School. "It used to be common for kids to walk to school alone, but not anymore," Finley says.

Sarah, 10, participates in a variety of after-school activities that are spread out across the week. She acts in a play, goes to Irish dance class, plays soccer and studies for the Math Olympiad. Sarah was on the swim team last fall but is waiting until summer to start up again, Finley says.

Sarah's schedule is about average for Saratoga children, Finley thinks. "We are fortunate to have so many great activities for our kids. Parents want to take advantage of all the great programs that are out there. It's really enrichment and giving your child a chance to try a lot of things while they're still young."

Finley says her daughter wants a cell phone, but she is going to wait until middle school to get her one.

Pragati Grover has two boys, Rishabh, 13, an eighth-grader at Redwood Middle School, and Mahir, 8, a third-grader at Argonaut Elementary School.

"I asked my kids what they would like to do," Grover says. "My older one wanted to be in the band. He chose French horn. He said it would look good on his résumè. They both chose soccer. I don't want them sitting in front of the TV or playing computer games all weekend. I'd rather have them play soccer."

Each morning, Grover wakes up at
6:30 a.m. and gets her two boys ready for their day. She drives them to school, sometimes throwing a jacket over her pajamas in order to make it in time for Rishabh's band practice at 7:15 a.m.

At 3 p.m., she picks the boys up and brings them home for a snack. If it's Tuesday, it's off to French horn lessons for Rishabh and chess club for Mahir. Afternoons during the week alternate among music lessons, soccer practice, chess club, band ensemble and acting practice with the Children's Theater Company. Mahir will perform in The Adventures of Dr. Doolittle with fellow Argonaut student, Sarah Finley.

Mahir and Rishabh get home on most days around 5 p.m. They have dinner and then they do their homework.

On weekends, both boys play in soccer games. Mahir's games are on Saturdays, while Rishabh's are on Sundays. Games are played all over the local area. "Last Sunday, we drove to Prunedale for a game," Grover says.

Grover, who grew up in India, says her childhood was focused mainly on academics. But she remembers picking up her bike and riding over to her friend's house. "Here everything is very organized and structured. Even play dates are scheduled. There are no kids out on the street. Whenever they want to go somewhere, Mom has to drive."

Grover estimates that she drives about 300 miles a week. "It's back and forth, back and forth."

It may be a lot of driving, but she says her boys are fortunate to have so many choices that enable them each to develop into a whole person.

"Nowadays, I think we're all tied to organized activities," Finley says. "The kids enjoy it. They learn new skills, and I think they develop a lot of confidence from that. They make good friends. It's their social network.

"When we were growing up, we didn't have all the classes and different things to do after school available to us. Back in those days you would go outside, and all the kids would be outside. It's not that way anymore. If you are a lone child out there, that could be a dangerous situation. The Silicon Valley of today is so different from the apricot and prune orchard community of the last generation.

"Parents need to find balance and take advantage of structured activities but still find time for kids to have creative play and freedom. The answer is different for every family.

"I think there's been a cultural shift. Parents want their children to experience the richness that is available in the community."

Although children may not have as much unscheduled free time as they did in the past, Grover says Rishabh still has time to shoot a basketball in the driveway. Friends still come over in the summertime to swim in the pool. Rishabh and Mahir still watch TV on the weekend and play computer games. "Kids still ride bikes," she says.

But, Grover says modern parenting means spending a lot of time driving children to and from activities. "I only have two children. I wonder how parents with four children do it."

The more things change ...

Phillip Baker, 18, is in his last semester at Bellarmine College Preparatory. He is expecting to hear back from the several colleges he has applied to by the end of the month.

While he doesn't have a cell phone, all his friends do. The Internet has become a big part of a teenager's life, he explains. Today, teenagers spend a lot of time chatting with friends online. And instead of going to the library to do research for school reports, they use Google.

Philip stays busy. He is the chairman of the Saratoga Youth Commission, a Boy Scout and a member of the debate team.

"I would say it's completely different growing up in Saratoga today," he says. "We don't spend much time wading in creeks."

He says a typical teenager today is usually involved in at least one extracurricular activity. "I think that by the time you get to high school, you find the one or two things you are good at and stick with that."

Philip says teenagers today feel a lot of pressure to get accepted into a good university. Part of this means that along with their regular extracurricular activities, teenagers are expected to perform community service, such as working with the mentally disabled or the homeless. "There's a lot of stress built into a young person's life. There are a lot of expectations heaped onto teenagers today."

While some things are different, he says for the most part life for teenagers hasn't changed all that much. Teenagers still root for the home team at school sporting events. They still like to hang out with friends and go to movies or take trips up to the city on weekends.

"A lot of things are different today, but it's superficially different," he says. "We still deal with the same things growing up. We're dealing with friends, with our parents and with getting ready to move into the real world. In that sense, I think things are not all that different. All in all, Saratoga has been a good place to grow up."

El Camino Hospital