In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
Those, the opening words of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, came to mind many times as I studied Jenny Lyn Bader’s Jamie and Clark. The two young characters are facing their own legitimate, serious challenges beyond the unenviable task of conquering the SAT, yet to one another (and to the rest of the world) they seem primed for success. All that either has to do to capitalize on their inherent advantage- be it wealth or intellect-is… ask 10 different people, get 10 different “obvious” solutions.
The trials of youth are frequently marginalized, and there is a tendency among many of us to inaccurately weigh the hardships of growing up in “my day” against today. “Ten miles, barefoot, in the snow, uphill both ways,” right? Sure, it’s easier for young folks to do things like limbo or fit into the same jeans they wore last winter, for instance, but everything else is a nerve-wracking shot in the dark that I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy. (You know who you are!) Whatever surety and confidence we find in our lives doesn’t appear until adulthood, with only the rarest exceptions. No amount of new technology or other advancements will ever make coming of age any easier in that regard, so as far as I’m concerned the playing field is level.
That’s why I fell in love with this script. It’s easy to look at these characters, or their real-world equivalents, and focus on their advantages. Some might see their distress and malaise and write the characters off as merely cynical or spoiled or selfish. I disagree-with the “merely” part. I think they’re truthful products of the flawed formula we give our young people to follow: Numbers=Success.
Fighting a losing battle is disheartening. Self-doubt can be crippling. It can take a great deal of unlearning to find happiness and to come to know oneself. They are the truly fortunate who find the “anti-tutor” to show them the way.
