Illiteracy v2.0

I took care of a 14 year old the past few days. He had to be admitted to the hospital to have a hand infection surgically cleaned out and then stay for a few days for antibiotics. He was a pretty quiet kid. Polite. Respectful. All the character traits one seems to have such difficulty finding in teenage boys these days.

The other morning when I went into his room on rounds I found him there with his laptop open. It looked like he had some school work out. His parents were there too. After finishing my business I stopped and asked the young man, "Are you a pretty good student?" "Ya. Pretty good." "Do you like school?" He laughed, "No. Not really." He couldn't tell me why not. He also couldn't tell me what he hoped to be doing some day when he's 39 years old. "You'll be 39 in the blink of an eye, you know." He seemed to have no conception of the future.  "What kinds of things do you like? What do you like to do?" "The computer. Games and stuff." I asked and, yes, he meant playing games on the computer, not developing them.

I left that room feeling discouraged. His caring parents did not appear to be college educated. They appeared to be from a blue-collar lower-middle class background. I think the dad, at least, is employed in manufacturing although, come to think of it, he seemed able to be at the hospital more often than not. I don't know if his mom works but both parents seemed very attentive to their son.  Their son who doesn't like school and has no vision of what he'll amount to in another 25 years.  Their son that really likes to just play games on his computer.

Boys like my patient bring to light what I think is a fairly large and growing population that is both without direction and has no interest in being given any. I think he illustrates a widening chasm in the US that is not just rich - poor but productive - nonproductive, engaged - not engaged, focused - distracted. And I'm not interested in blame. I'm not even terribly concerned with the social or financial burden a kid like this threatens (although each of us should be). I'm concerned with our loss. A sharp mind. A capable body. A Ferrari left to rust in a barn. I think there must be oceans of kids who are growing up without anyone to engage them, to show them that life at 30, at 40, at 50 can be really fulfilling and pleasurable because of work. They aren't just poor inner city youth, these kids are everywhere.

When I left that room I really had to wonder: Is there a program to mentor such kids? How many of us could meet with a group of 14 year olds and tell them about what we do in this world? How many of us could relate what excites us about work, about contributing in this world, about why we don't want to spend the day playing games on a computer. How many of us could invite one of them to come along one half or one whole day a week to see how it happens? In my neck of the woods too many kids are never afforded a vision and so remain in the dark. It is a tragic form of illiteracy and one that cannot be fixed in the classroom. It's definitely a homework assignment for all of us.