MetaChat - "Tom Sawyer and today's children: Same behavior, different treatment"

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10 August 2010

"Tom Sawyer and today's children: Same behavior, different treatment" I have a problem with this op-ed.→[More:] Not in its opposition to "medicating into normalcy" problem children. But the conclusion "Tom Sawyer turns out fine in the end. In 19th-century Missouri, there were still many opportunities for impulsive kids who were bored and fidgety in school: The very qualities that made him so tiresome -- curiosity, hyperactivity, recklessness -- are precisely the ones that get him the girl, win him the treasure and make him a hero." Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are FICTIONAL CHARACTERS, who I have long assumed "turned out fine" as Mark Twain's message that "19th-century Missouri" SHOULD give them better opportunities than it did in real life. Am I missing the point or is Ms. Applebaum?

post by: oneswellfoop at: 18:50 | 9 comments

Well, things have changed since then. Today's Tom Sawyer, well, he gets high on you and the energy you trade.

posted by jonmc 10 August | 19:08

This writer doesn't understand Operational Defiance Disorder.

posted by drezdn 10 August | 20:03

Oh, no kidding. I completely agree with your assessment. And what do we know about Tom's "end," anyway? He turns up again in Huck Finn, illegally imprisoning a freed slave for his own fun, lying to a relative about his identity, and defending slavery. It's been positive that the Tom Sawyer of Huckleberry Finn is a caricature of the failures of Reconstruction. He's not real; wasn't intended to be real.

Critiquing whether schooling is developmentally appropriate for girls and boys of all learning styles makes sense to me. Dragging poorly understood fictional characters into it doesn't.

posted by Miko 10 August | 20:50

Actually, as a parent of a child with ADHD and ODD, I kind of agree with her. It's struck me many times that kids like my son might well do a whole lot better a hundred years or more ago than they do today. There's just not as much scope, nowadays, in this technological and overcrowded world, to run wild. The people who would have made wonderful medieval members of a household guard or even homesteading farmers don't, mostly, have those options anymore.

posted by mygothlaundry 11 August | 09:22

The very qualities that made him so tiresome -- curiosity, hyperactivity, recklessness -- are precisely the ones that get him the girl, win him the treasure and make him a hero.

This reminds me of my (ADHD) husband so much.

posted by desjardins 11 August | 09:57

Why shouldn't she use commonly known fictional characters to illustrate her opinion? "Take the example of Erias Plancet, a twelve year old boy in 19th century Iowa who got in fights and prefered, according to his Aunt Winnifred's letters to her sister Ruth, spending time outside and playing tricks on his peers." Huh? Her technique seems pretty economical to me.

posted by rainbaby 11 August | 10:16

Sort of related: The "argument" I hate the most: X happened to me and I turned out just fine.

posted by Obscure Reference 11 August | 13:50

Sort of related: The "argument" I hate the most: X happened to me and I turned out just fine.

Likewise my in-laws' statements to my wife about child-rearing: we did X to you and you turned out fine.

posted by fogovonslack 11 August | 15:36

As an adult with ADD, I agree with mygothlaundry. People with ADD are wired for a different life, before alarm clocks and TPS reports.

I was going to write more, but I was distracted by a shiney object...

posted by evilcupcakes 11 August | 21:00

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