Childhood, Interrupted

One day you're happily playing ball in the park and the next day you find yourself caught up in the fierce competition also known as public education. Having to spend many hours a day sitting quietly on your chair and nodding to the teacher at regular intervals is bad enough, but that's not all your supposed to. You're supposed to be bright, have excellent grades, outsmart your peers and win whatever contest you have to take part in. As a child, there's no way you can say no, you don't want to disappoint your parents and your teacher.
For millions and millions of kids around the world, childhood has become a never-ending nightmare of contests. Most of them, pointless.

Source

Half-an-hour ago I was talking to a friend in the US about the Spelling Bee. She'd called to tell me her eldest won the district stage of the Spelling Bee and in three weeks time they're going to the county stage of the competition. 'They're going' because it's not just about the child, it's a family issue, they're all concerned.
Knowing grammar and spelling is important, I admit, but this contest is way past that. As I was told, the further you get in this particular contest the harder the words a kid is supposed to know. Words grown-up have never heard before, don't know what they mean, let alone spell.
Do you know the winning word for a Spelling Bee held in Oakland in 2016? It was 'feldenkrais'!

'used for a system of aided body movements intended to increase body awareness and ease tension.'

How about 'marocain'?

'a dress fabric that is made with a warp of silk or rayon and a filling of other yarns and is similar to but heavier than canton crepe'

Or 'stichomythia'?

dialogue in which two characters speak alternate lines of verse, used as a stylistic device in ancient Greek drama.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you wanted to order a 'marocain' dress and didn't know the word? I haven't! Why torture these kids with list of hundreds of words they're probably never use in their lives?

It's not like a child - any child - finds it fun to learn lists of useless words. Their parents don't find it fun either and they're mature enough to know it's pointless – yet, as my friend told me, they're busy printing lists the girl will have to learn by heart over the next three weeks.
When exactly is she going to learn them it's not that clear, as the next two weekends she's taking part in some advanced math competition. So, she needs to prepare for that, too. Why would a 6th grader take on 7th grade math is beyond me, as she'll surely study it next year?
So, she has the Spelling Bee, advanced math and homework, let's not forget homework – which, I'm told, takes up most of the weekend. And some other, less important tests, not worth mentioning.

In my country the situation is pretty much the same, with dozens of contests for ever smaller children. It's a business like any other. The people that set up these contests make good money – registration fees, special study books, access to online platforms – you name it. Teachers prod their pupils to enter these competitions so they can chalk up some good results, sometimes teachers get small prizes based on the number of pupils they enroll.
Most parents know it's a business as they're the ones that pay the fees. Even when you're struggling to raise three kids, like my friend, what's $100 fee so they gain access to some precious online resources?
The problem is the child has no say in this madness. The child needs to give up on the whole spare-time idea and study round-the-clock. 24/7.

Source

Most parents relentlessly pushing their children into this punishing schedule swear they're not the ones telling the kids they need to take part in these competition. They insist they're worried how hard their children work, they're apologetic - if she wants to go to the Spelling Bee what can I do, she's so set on winning?
I'm sorry, but that's a lie – the kids aren't set on winning the contest, they're set on winning the parents and the teachers' approval. As I was talking to my friend, I could feel the pride in her voice from thousands of miles away. Imagine the child looking at her parents sitting in the audience at the stupid contest last night - she could see their pride, too, I'm sure. So she'll study like crazy over the next weeks to make her parents proud once again.
Last year was just the same, next year will be just the same, on and on until one day the poor girl will ask herself – Hey, where did my childhood go?

Thanks for reading