Aspiring..."the loss of early years"

I was in a program with children of 11-13 year old. as we started doing an activity to climb an artifical climbing wall. as the children started climbing a noticed a peculiar pattern. As it started one of the first one reached out for a hand hold beyond her reach and lost her foothold. never mind! there is always a saftey rope that arrests your fall. But she swang and and to redouble her effort. Next boy and the same result, I had to shout out to them to reach for what is in their reach. and the same thing happened participant after participant loosing their ground(less then a square inch when you are on a wall parallel to it). As I sat down with them afterwards and as they were reflecting, A thought crossed my mind and i asked them" you are in a school which is till 12th grade, are you all in teh school at the same time/, "yes!" they said. "so do you all have someone in higher classes you look up to?" they all looked at each other and smiled. Are you in a hurry to become like them? and they all started grinning.
This is where the world is I thought, Children at 11-13 can not just be themselves. They are already putting pressure on themselves to be someone!