It’s not clear exactly where the current trend – of pushing more information on kids earlier – came from...
That's precisely on-point. Where did that come from? Even less noticed is the relatively flat progression after 8th grade in ELA/Literacy (notwithstanding MOAR COMPLEXITY). It would be simple enough to revise the early year standards without changing the later years much at all, keeping the overall rigor of the output of the system the same.
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That's a sharp question. Where DID it come from?! Answering the question might require some psychoanalyzing of the whole culture, something I'm not sure I'm up to. I can say with some confidence, though, that at least when it comes to reading, trying to hurry up the learning process probably isn't a good idea. Waldorf schools have been shown to have perfectly respectable results, and they don't LET kids read until they're in second grade, and even then, I believe, tend to use a whole-language approach that would make Tim Shanahan gag. This has been studied more than once:
http://literacyinleafstrewn.blogspot.com/2013/06/waldorf-schools-are-interesting-natural.html
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