Limiting socialisation for short time to focus is one thing, but a complete ban on reading outside the curriculum is hugely damaging to a child's education and happiness.

Are you sure banning books outside the curriculum is proper parenting because what I'm reading is thought control.

I bet this wasn't denying access to books outside the curriculum because they're bad influence or something - it was merely about making sure they did also read the books assigned to them by the school. It actually looks like following standard productivity advice - eliminating distraction. The kid could go back to reading whatever after the required job was done.

Wait where did you go little boy https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42899018