…reality show stars. Honestly, where are these kids’ parents?
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Where are the parents? Absent or cheering them on while living vicariously through them.
When my parents as recent immigrants first came to Buffalo, they looked at a local high-priced “elite” school for my two brothers (I was not yet in the picture). After seeing how out of control the kids were, they decided they wanted to have no part of it. From what I’ve seen, it’s basically the place where poor smart kids on scholarships balance out the grades of the idiot kids of wealthy parents.
I, myself, later went to the local Jesuit school. Since this school doesn’t deign to subordinate its curricula to the black hole of idiocy that is the NYS Board of Regents, it is generally not directly compared academically to the other schools. There is an emphasis on character in its education, and general preparation for life. The kids of law firm partners and surgeons hung out with the kids of firefighters. Snobbery did not fly.
This show seems to fit into the stereotype of the school where the emphasis is on image over substance, and grades over education. It’s the perfect preparation for a post-secondary world where you can get one advanced degree after another without actually learning a darn thing.
I’ll bet these kids ARE getting an excellent education, Obi. Some truly brilliant teachers work at elite NYC prep schools; with such teachers, these kids can’t help but learn a lot. What bugs me is these kids’ swagger, their air of entitlement, and the fact that the academic quality gap between these schools and most public high schools is so large. In the Bay Area, where I live, this gap seems to grow wider by the minute as the budget fiasco further weakens an already struggling public school system. Much of the upper-middle class here seems to be defecting from the public system, sadly. We seem to be failing at the democratic experiment, veering back to the times of aristocrats and serfs.
This entitlement attitude is unfortunately very prevalent among kids in affluent neighborhoods. It made my life miserable back when I was in junior high in the late ’80’s because my parents were anti-materialistic and therefore did not spend their money on designer clothes, luxury automobiles, exotic vacations, etc. I knew we were not poor because we always had the basics, but I seriously thought that my family’s income was quite a bit less than most of my classmates’ families. And I had to endure a lot of snobbery from them as a result.
I have to admit that when the recession of the early ’90’s hit, I felt it quite a bit of karmic justice that so many of my snobby classmates were not able to attend the colleges of their choice because they did not get enough financial aid whereas my parents had saved enough for 3 years at Stanford.
Of course, our reactions to these kids is pure gold to the show’s producers. We watch with fascination and disgust.
I really wonder why the parents would allow their children’s most distasteful behavior to be televised nationally–or are they really as warped as their children seem to be?
If Paris Hilton’s story is any guide, these teens will probably be rewarded for their efforts. Let’s hope they don’t become role models.