Success markets the end of childhood

STEVE SMITH

His name was George Johnson and I remember him as the only kid in my

fourth-grade class at Woodcrest Elementary School in Los Angeles who

could run faster than me. During my year at Woodcrest, the school had

a scholastic and athletic Olympics and I qualified as a finalist in

both the 50-yard dash and the math bee (that’s where I stated a

problem and the competitor must figure out the answer in his head).

But the rules of competition forbade any student from competing in

two events and I was asked to choose racing or ciphering. In a very

ironic decision, but one driven by the knowledge that George Johnson

waited for me on the playground, I chose to compete in the math bee

in the auditorium. I came in second, the same position I would have

achieved in the 50-yard dash. That math bee was the only “bee” in

which I’ve ever participated and I’m reminded of it after watching

the excellent film, “Spellbound.”

“Spellbound” follows the lives of eight kids in the days before

their competition in the national spelling bee in Washington, D.C.

All eight are bright kids, and one even manages to annoy in a way

that reminded me of Bill Murray in “What About Bob?”

You can tell that these are good kids. They’re bright, articulate

and passionate about spelling. My guess is that they’re probably

passionate about everything else in school, too. OK, let’s call them

what they are -- they’re nerds. Not long ago, that would have been

bad thing to call them, but thanks to Bill Gates and the engineers at

NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it’s quite all right to be a

nerd. Yes, kids will make fun of them, but they’ll make fun of

anything or anyone else, too.

One of the kids in the movie was studying words for eight hours a

day. Eight hours a day!

I thought about her while reading a story in the Jan. 21 edition

of the Christian Science Monitor. There, writer Susan DeMerssemman

offers that some people today have trouble transitioning to adulthood

because they never fully experienced childhood.

DeMerssemman doesn’t believe much in Attention Deficit Disorder.

First acknowledging that medication may be good for some, she then

writes, “On the other hand, I have seen a drastic change in what

people consider ‘normal.’ This trend to medicate children may be more

a symptom of societal ill than an indication of a childhood

condition.”

DeMerssemman’s words are not new, but I was struck by them because

she is a psychologist in Berkeley, Calif. Berkeley, where I would

have expected boatloads of sympathy for these sick kids and a

knee-jerk reaction to medicating their poor souls. But DeMerssemman

goes on to paint a troubling yet accurate picture of kids in 2004.

“There must be room in childhood -- and adulthood -- for

variations in temperament in nature. For some kids in the classroom,

it takes all the strength and courage they have to stand up and

speak. For others, it takes all the strength they have to sit down

and shut up. Yet we judge both with the same yardstick.”

We have to judge them both by the same yardstick because we have

no time to judge them any other way. DeMerssemman calls our society

“hypercompetitive” but I believe it’s more than that. We’ve now

offered our children and ourselves too many alternatives to the

things that used to make up what was once a simple childhood. Even

some of those traditional activities such as playing football,

baseball or basketball are so over-regulated that it takes a big

effort to make it fun.

DeMerssemman wants childhood to be a “marketing-free zone,” that

is, all the advertisements that now bombard them each day would

disappear. There is as much chance of that happening as having a

commercial airport built in El Toro but it would be nice if those

messages were at least more careful in the words and pictures that

are used.

Kids are not adults but we’ve decided that many of them are ready

for adult stimulation. We let them watch unsuitable movies and

television, wear adult clothing and put them on a frenetic pace in

order to prepare them for what lies ahead.

DeMerssemman is right. We’re now seeing the effects of kids

growing up too fast and unfortunately, nothing will be done about it.

We’ve sold our children’s souls to Madison Avenue and a twisted sense

of what success is really all about.

In the fourth grade, success could be as simple as a second-place

finish in a math bee.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and a freelance writer.

Readers may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at

(949) 642-6086.