Yes, this one is bound to make some people angry...but at least I'll know someone is reading this.
When I say "socially bereft"...yes, I'm talking to you Master and Miss Spelling Bee Champions. I've caught your act the last 3 or 4 years on ESPN2, and I have to say I'm fairly impressed.
I'm also terrified.
Does that "dead-eye stare" and lack of emotion come naturally to you? I know virtually all of you are home schooled (which certainly limits the social interaction pool somewhat), but it was when you were up there at the microphone and they said your interest areas were...16th Century Poetry, Classical Literature, and Interpretation of Mozart that I became concerned.
Exactly who's interest areas are these, anyways? The last time I had a kid come up to me and say, "Hey Mister...what do you think of Torquato Tasso's works of the Mid 1500's?" was ...ummmm...let's see....well - never, actually. Something tells me there is a problem here, and it's spelled p-a-r-e-n-t-s.
I have a teenage son who achieves for the most part straight 'A's in a very demanding public High School Honors curriculum, but I've never caught him staying up late at night reading Fyodor Dostoevsky "The Brothers Karamazov", and I pray every day that won't happen. He never won a spelling bee either. So he is singlehandedly killing two myths with one big stone...brains and spelling don't necessarily go hand in hand, and a child can go to a public school in this country and get a good education.
But back to our spelling champs. You're all within a decade of learning first hand the meaning, root, and etymology of another word: Forlorn.
But there is hope. And a fairly simple solution.
Pick a Saturday...any nice sunny Saturday. Put down the Shakespeare and look around for your mom and dad. When you know they're not watching...sneak outside and find a group of kids your age playing in the neighborhood. Maybe they're kicking or throwing around a ball...or possibly just hanging out and talking...you know, kids stuff. Walk up to them - introduce yourself - and join in. Trust me on this one.
You may feel uncomfortable at first, having no experience to this point with the joy of being young, alive, and without care. But soon the discomfort will pass and you'll begin to experience a fascinating physiological phenomenon known as smiling.
And that's spelled, h-a-p-p-i-n-e-s-s.
Note: The Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee will be held in Washington, D.C. the final weekend of May, 2006. ESPN2 will broadcast an edited version of the finals shortly thereafter. If you don't believe me, check it out and judge for yourself.
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6 comments:
Well, say what you like but I am still planning on broadcasting Kafka's "Metamorphosis" into my uterus.
Just kidding.
In Russian.
You almost had me in tears laughing! Everytime I have watched this event I have also been impressed, and glued to the TV, not because I'm sitting on the edge of my seat with bated breath...but because these kids are just so weird! It's like getting to watch a freak show, but feeling ok about it because it's "educational"! (That was ugly, wasn't it? Sorry!)
I wouldn't say that I thought your post was harsh, I would be more inclined to say that it was TRUE!
Not politically correct mind you, but if you can't speak the truth on your own weblog, well...why even bother writing at all!
As a parent myself...compared to you, and the parents of the spellwizzards, I see an alarming difference. Where you and I have meaningful lives independent of our families (family is part of what makes life meaningful, but there are other things too), these parents must be ,in some measure, living vicariously through their kids. Just like the mom who pushes hard for her daughter to win as many pagents as possible (because it fulfills something missing in the mom), or the dad who makes Jr. throw that football for hours everyday so he can be captain in high school or college...(it would make dad so proud if son made it to the NFL!)
Is this freakish drive in some people wrong, or what makes them winners? Am I a lesser parent for not pushing harder? I love to read, and my kids do too...but not so much that they would choose to stay inside on a pretty day.
I would like to see the stats on past spelling-bee champions--what did they grow up to be? Did they marry happily? What percent commited suicide?
We often read stories about adults at the top of their field (Executives, Athletes, Models, Writers, performers) who are plagued with insecurity issues that lead to corruptions of one kind or another. I think what frightens you, as it does me, is to see ones so young and to be so driven.
-BellaCora
Umm--I was one of those freakish spellers, about a million years ago. (Went to State, not to Nationals.)
I gotta tell you--that look is more an incredibly focused level of concentration than anything else. When you spell (competitively) you shut out everything external, so you can "see" the word on a screen in your mind's eye.
I also played soccer, rode horses, and spent plenty of time just daydreaming or watching clouds. I think your concern is somewhat misplaced. *smile*
(found your blog via the comments on BellaCora's Mayden's Voyage.)
Fair enough. I can get the concentration part. I'm not sure the spelling bee's of 25 years ago even remotely resemble the spelling bee's of today though. The post - although admittedly politically INcorrect - was not an indictment of the kids taking part in it. It was a much broader stroke, aimed at the parental pressures placed on some children. Same thing applies to parents who insist their kid is going to be a ballet dancer, concert pianist, or shortstop for the Cleveland Indians. It has become fashionable in our country to bash parents of athletes for pushing too hard (using derogatory terms like "soccer mom" for one example), but if a parent is overbearing and obnoxious about their child's intellectual or academic pursuits, the unspoken rule is we're not supposed to criticize that publicly. Is there any difference between a dad who drives his kid into the ground in the dad's pursuit of a career as a pro football player and a mom who wants her kid to be a doctor so badly she starts using medical flash cards at age 3?
I think I know the answer to that, but it's not up to me to decide. It's the individual family that faces this dilemma every day.
And that is what I was saying, per se. Thank you for reading, and also for your input.
Mac,
Truly...truly, I hope you know that I did not mean that kids who are driven to do something significant turn into loonies later in life! :) you are obviously proof of that! :)
My youngest brother is mentally retarded, and it takes an enormous amount of effort...on our part and his, to convey something and he be able to process it. He tries, God bless him, harder than anyone I have ever met, but with so much less success. He is driven, but fortunately he will never have hang-ups like many of us "normal" people...like the class Valedictorian of my husbands senior high school, who committed suicide the following summer.
"Sigh", life is simpler for the simple. We can have outrageous discussions about politics, schooling, and parenting, but life boils down to some fairly basic things for kids who will never be able to spell their own names, much less be celebrated for their cleverness, or their determination.
Besides, I have always been a terrible speller! :) (I swear it is genetic!) Perhaps I am only jealous of those smart little kids who don't need a spellchecker for anything! :)
Have a great day! -BellaCora :)
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