I respect your opinion, but I have to disagree very strongly here.<p>First, it seems that it is by being ambitious and trying to do hard things that we as humans improve.  I would rather try to do something hard and fail than set out to do something easy and succeed.  Also, often failing at something hard will result in something short of your goal but still far better than you would have gotten by going for the easy goal.<p>Second, it is very hard to know what your means or someone elses means are, or even what is possible.  A great many things that people used to think were impossible have been achieved.<p>And finally:<p><i>They will have very ambitious goals and will not settle for what they consider beneath them.</i><p>First, most people will eventually settle if they hit repeated failure (but perhaps settle for more than they would have gotten by aiming low...).  I know one person who dreamed of acting and is now programming, whether this is "settling" is debatable, but it wasn't their stated goal.  If a person truly refuses to settle, then they have a couple of choices:<p>1. They can refuse to give up and keep trying without end.  This can be good.  They may eventually succeed, and even if they won't, they will probably get further than they would by settling.<p>2. They can try to cheat and use unethical means to get what they want.  But the answer to this one is not to make them less ambitious, but to help make the children more moral so they will never resort to this and stick with #1.<p>3. They can give up in some extreme way such as living on welfare or ending their own life.  But I don't think many ambitious people will take this route, and again the answer is not make the children less ambitous but to make them more moral and more stable so they would stick with #1.<p>In short, I think it is a very good idea to encourage children to be ambitious and work to improve themselves.