HELEN, GA—Second-grade teacher Alice Granger was not particularly surprised when new student Leroy (Bubba) Brine introduced himself to the class with, “I’m Bubba and I’m smarter than my parents!” She had run across more than a few narcimensakinders (children who believe they are smarter than their teachers or parents) in her 18 years of teaching at Wilson Elementary School. She smiled to herself at his brazen self-assessment and confidence, thinking the new student would be a nice addition to her class of students with average abilities. As the weeks went on, she discovered him to be an average student scholastically, although he was friendly and seemed to be well-liked by the other students. “I was a little concerned that he kept consistently bringing up his narcimensakinder beliefs, though, and thought I would mention it at parent/teacher conferences.”
She first met his parents, Leroy and Violet Brine, last week when they came for a conference, although they had passed hand-written messages back and forth occasionally; the Brines are without a computer. “They are very nice people, and as I shared Bubba’s average test results with them, I casually mentioned that he thinks he is smarter than they are. They smiled at each other and exclaimed, ‘Oh, he IS, we know THAT!’ as though that is something to be proud of.” It turns out that Bubba’s parents have very little formal education, being raised in the back woods of Arkansas. They cannot, in fact, read at any measurable level.
Ms. Granger was puzzled at first, since she has received written notes from them. Violet explained that she tells Bubba what to write down, emphasizing, “And use your best writing!” Ms. Granger then asked about his math, adding and subtracting double digits, “I know you must help him with his homework.” Mrs. Brine explained, “I don’t do numbers over 100; we send Bubba to the next-door neighbor for help with math.” Mr. Brine just beamed as his wife continued to list their educational deficiencies.
Ms. Granger was quite stunned to learn that Bubba isn’t a narcimensakind, but really a mensakind (child who is smarter than their parents), because she has never run across one before. Being the consummate educator that she is, she offered the Brines a list of adult literacy resources through the White County Library. But neither Leroy (28, night watchman for the junk yard) nor Violet (25, janitor at Rhode’s Bakery) expressed any interest in improving their skills. As Leroy put it, “Our Lil' Bubba’s got alla the brains in this 'ere family and we’re jus' so happy for 'im. If’n he can get through 6th grade, well we would be so gosh dern proud! Me and Letty are doin’ jus' fine; we can’t see mussin' things up with a lot of book learnin’.”