Beeline : what spelling bees reveal about generation Z's new path to success

Title
Beeline : what spelling bees reveal about generation Z's new path to success

Author
Shankar, Shalini, 1972- author.

ISBN
9780465094523

Edition
1st ed.

Physical Description
vii, 327 pages ; 25 cm.

Contents
Introduction -- Kids today -- Brain sports and kid competitions -- Spelling bees -- Gen Z kids -- Parents of Gen Z kids -- Bee week -- Becoming elite -- Making spellebrities -- Professionalizing childhoods -- Conclusion: Gen Z futures.

Subject Term
Success in children.
 
Generation Z.
 
Spelling bees -- Social aspects.
 
Achievement motivation in children.

Summary
An anthropologist uses spelling bees as a lens to examine the unique and diverse traits of Generation Z--and why they are destined for success At first glance, Generation Z (youth born after 1997) seems to be made up of anxious overachievers, hounded by Tiger Moms and constantly tracked on social media. One would think that competitors in the National Spelling Bee -- the most popular brain sport in America -- would be the worst off. Counterintuitively, anthropologist Shalini Shankar argues that, far from being simply overstressed and overscheduled, Gen Z spelling bee competitors are learning crucial twenty-first-century skills from their high-powered lives, displaying a sophisticated understanding of self-promotion, self-direction, and social mobility. Drawing on original ethnographic research, including interviews with participants, judges, and parents, Shankar examines the outsize impact of immigrant parents and explains why Gen Z kids are on a path to success.


LibraryCall NumberStatus
Oakdale Library155.419 SHANonfiction Collection
R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)155.419 SHANonfiction Collection