In Norwich, all the little tadpoles are trained from an early age to swim upstream. The training process is called, quite appropriately, "enrichment".
The "best" Norwich youngsters take after-school Kumon courses to help them beat the tracking system in math. They play on a different sports team every season, and their parents cheerfully spend their weekends driving them to meets and races. (This is not deemed to be a waste of gas because the students will end up making significant contributions to society.) The little scholar athletes go to soccer camp and "brain camp" in the summers. The high-schoolers spontaneously organize projects to save the planet, comfort the aged, and alleviate the sufferings of the less fortunate.
The primary purpose behind these myriad activities and orientations is to consolidate and extend the kids' socio-economic situation by getting them into the best schools. Successful contemporary parents realize how lucky they were to reach the top, and realize that, in this competitive society, it is never too early to start jockying for a favorable position in the pack. This is euphemistically referred to as ensuring that their child has "choices" - though the terms "money" and "social status" are probably at least as applicable in this context.
I don't have a problem with any of this. My only quibble is with the term "choices".
It seems to me that the whole point of the process is to ensure that the children don't have any choices. That, having been groomed and brainwashed for years, they will make the "right" choices and feel that they have freely chosen of their own volition. In fact, they won't even know what real choice is, and so won't miss it, never having tasted the undomesticated variety.
@Abe
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on both points. The main reason that I set up this blog was to have somewhere to over-generalize and to indulge in tiresome self-righteousness without imposing on the readers of the Norwich listserv.
Thanks for sharing.
Note to self: consider which is worse, over-generalization or under-generalization.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's a viable meme: "Your right to generalize ends where my opinions begin."
Kind of catchy. Not sure I agree with it, though.
What's wrong with the notion that parents are simply providing their kids with enrichment opportunities because they want them to grow up to be educated, well-rounded, and productive members of society?
ReplyDeleteOr is that too simple and straightforward an explanation?
Sure, we all want that for our kids.
ReplyDeleteBut the current crop of parents are driving their children with an intensity and level of pressure to excel that vastly exceeds what they themselves experienced growing up. There is something more going on than meets the eye.
I fear that the younger generation will end up too conventional, cautious, and conformist. Very accepting of difference (which is a great thing) but not very good at hearing or following the beat of their own drummer. Very successful, but not particularly creative or imaginative. (Sure there will be exceptions. There are always exceptions. I am talking about trends and averages.)
I pity the children of today for never having had the opportunity to wrestle with and surmount boredom. There may be something to be said for benign neglect.
I think if you can't say anything nice, you shouldn't say anything at all.
ReplyDeleteI think if you cant read something uncomfortable but true... dont read it.
ReplyDelete