Spelling Bee Champions as Whores for Scripps and Other Sponsors?
When my children were babies, a few people suggested they be put to work.
“Their pictures could be used to sell anything from diapers to high chairs.”
My kids? Models? Maybe for birth control…
Husband and I declined all offers of fame and fortune.
“Come on,” people said. “It could pay for their college tuition.”
“Isn’t that our job?” I asked.
Putting children in front of a national or global audience is almost always glorified child abuse. Whenever I hear about events like the Little League World Series where dozens of young boys are crying on the baseball field, and broadcast straight into millions of living rooms, my heart breaks for them.
Adults have a hard time dealing with that kind of adulation and pressure. What makes us think our young ones can handle it? Kids should be able to get through major events in their lives without flashing bulbs, crowds, or scrutiny.
Last night, the Scripps National Spelling Bee was televised during prime time. Newspaper reports compared the program to reality television shows and sports programming.
What happens to reality stars and sports figures who get used to the lime light at an early age? The list is long and filled with tragedies or near misses. Think Nick Bollea or Michael Phelps.
Children sometimes make bad choices and huge mistakes. Lots of kids do, but most of them have a chance to recover before anyone knows their name.
“They haven’t really developed grown-up inhibitions,” James Maguire once said kids when discussing the appeal of watching Spelling Bees.
And for that, young champions are rewarded with newspaper headlines like: Rise of the word nerds.
Fantastic.
More parents should refuse to allow television cameras to photograph their children. Too many companies are benefitting from the exploitation of minors. And too many kids are paying the price.
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Well, okay, yeah, but remember, the kids that get the press coverage for spelling bees…well, generally, they’re not the kids who dream about growing up to be models, actors or reality TV stars. These kids want to be neurosugeons, biotechonolgy designers and physicists. Many of them already fly their geek flag high because they’ve accepted it and decided, “Meh, if it hurts in twenty years, I’ll use a tiny fraction of my huge wealth I amassed from being smart as hell and pay a therapist to figure it out for me.”
Besides, I think it’s EXCELLENT that these kids are getting attention and fame for being brainy. It’s light years better than those nonsense pageants.