Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/01/17
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--- On Mon, 1/17/11, Jayanand Govindaraj <jayanand at gmail.com> wrote:
> Rank exploitation of innocence.
You and I may see it that way, but parents (and kids) don't. This isn't
that different from any other performing art for kids... and nobody looks
twice at parents putting kids into music or dance lessons when they're
barely old enough to walk.
> What do the parents of these kids hope to gain?
Expo$ure. These things are big business in Texas. There are performance
and modelling contracts for the winners, scholarships in meaningful amounts
of money, etc. Also, placing well equals several steps up on the 'social
ladder' for the winning kids (which in the long run doesn't mean much but
for the kids at the time is a big deal...).
I think we're turning kids into short adults ten years too soon, myself. We
have major league professional sports scouts eyeballing kids before they're
even teenagers now, and I can't see how that's a good thing either. On the
other hand, I'm also not looking at trying to find another hundred grand to
put a kid through college, and maybe if I was that would make a difference.
And, too... I'm a guy who would gleefully spend more for a camera I don't
actually NEED than I did for the truck which I absolutely DO.... so maybe my
perspective's a little off-kilter.
R. Clayton McKee
PhotoJournalist
from somewhere just south of somewhere else...