When I was a kid, nobody knew what to do with me in school, so they put me ahead.
When I was young, I thought it was cool, but once I got into High School, I realized that my age difference presented some permanent degree of social awkwardness in forming relationships with kids who were in my same classes and grades.
That's a big reason why I wrote Winger, which is about a 14-year-old kid who's in eleventh grade.
Um.
I kind of know what that's like.
I think Ryan Dean West, the narrator/cartoonist who tells the story of Winger, really captures a lot of the not-fitting-in essence of what those high school years were like for me. It's kind of funny now. It was kind of sickening then.
The funny thing is, when I was growing up, I frequently read or watched news stories about other kids who accelerated in school (they were always presented in such a Wow! Look at how SMART this kid is!!! kind of way) with a sickened horror, like I was driving past the scene of a wreck where I had just crashed into myself. And I swore I would never -- NEVER -- want to let that happen to my kid.
Um.
So. They kind of didn't know what to do with my kid in school, either. He got into UC Berkeley at 16.
It's okay. He's way smarter, bigger, cooler, and well-adjusted than I was when I was a kid.
I swear.
Winger will be coming out in Spring, 2013, from Simon and Schuster.
7 comments:
This is like a half-assed attempt at lamenting.
In elementary, I was put into a program called HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills). It was basically a catch-all room for the students they did not know what to do with. With kids from both ends of the spectrum, it was basically a petri dish in which Carmen San Diego and The Oregon Trail got a lot of play.
Oh and I wrote a poem using the word 'queer' and got in trouble. I'll never forget that, Mrs. Hogenson.
In high school I opted out of the advanced track as a freshman because I thought I was dumb.
And now here I am.
(I suck at lamenting too)
Your son is lucky to have you, Andrew.
I was kicked out of most of the schools I went to, until they sent me to reform school in Idaho. I ran away from there when I was 17, and never went back.
Now I'm writing a book that's based on it (loosely).
Anyway, I was about to say "don't you realize they did the same thing to Trevin?" when you pointed it out yourself.
I'm sure he's doing fine, though. He seems like a very cool cat to me.
Thank you, Jonathon.
And Matthew... Hell, Trevin hangs out with rock-star cool people up there in Berkeley.
I am jealous.
As a 16-year-old simultaneously finishing up my senior year of high school and my second year of college, I am pretty psyched for Winger.
That's the goal isn't it, to have our kids be better at life than we are/were. Of course in my case that's setting the bar pretty low. Pretty much all they have to do is avoid being hobos.
When I was in third grade They placed me in the sixth grade reading class. I remember standing up and stating in a trembling voice that Oz and Narnia did exist, and that I would get there to get away from Them.
And every night I wished myself away.
I started uni at 16...not because I was uber-smart but because I'd been through so many mismatched education systems that I somehow got ahead of myself. The big age gap with my peers was the fact that most of them could legally drink. So I had to hang out with those who could only drink illegally. Seemed to work out okay!
Love the Wilfred Owen quote too!
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