While
talking to my daughter a while ago, it occurred to me how simple life can be
when one does not have exceptional children.
She's
joined the school tennis team and has never played tennis before. She's a
senior, but on the JV team (one of the benefits of a small school is that just
about anyone who wants to can be on a school team). I asked if there was a game
schedule yet and she said yes, but it doesn't matter because JV does not play
any matches. Why not? She didn't know - I'm guessing that there are not enough
JV players in the league to form whole teams. In fact, when our exchange
student played basketball last year, sometimes there were not enough JV girls
from one school to form a team so they just divided both teams randomly up into
two teams so they could at least play. I love that.
If
you're not going to compete, then what's the point of playing tennis for the
school (and paying for it)? So you can get good enough to play on the varsity
team, which is obviously not an option for a senior with no experience.
"And that's just the way I like it," she said. She just wants the
exercise and to have something productive to do with her friends after school
besides homework and without having to embarrass herself in front of
spectators.
Because
I'm the parent of unexceptional kids, I don't have to worry about playing time
and bad officiating getting in the way of sports scholarships, and she gets to
concentrate on learning how to play and having fun. I don't have to splash out
on an expensive tennis racket to make sure she's not playing at a disadvantage.
No worries that they put Tiffany in instead of her while the college recruiter
was there because Tiffany's mom, that bitch, is louder.
As
just an above-average student and not an exceptional student, I don't have to
worry about the stress she'd endure if she were to be in all AP classes, the
concern that she'd be at a disadvantage because few AP classes are offered at
her small school, or that she's stuck not learning enough in a math class with a
brilliant mathematician who believes that teaching is nothing more than
presenting and moving on. No worry about whether she'll be accepted to
Stanford. If my kids were passionate about and gifted at anything, I'd do
whatever necessary to help them pursue their goals. As it is, though, they haven't
taken up too much of my time. It is more expensive, though, the lack of
scholarship opportunities.
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