We are Not Created Equal in Every Way

(In this opinion article [argumentative essay] published in the San Francisco Chronicle on December 12, 2000, columnist and reporter Joan Ryan takes a stand on whether the San Francisco Ballet School did or did not discriminate against 8-year-old Fredrika Keefer when it declined to admit her on the grounds that she had the wrong body type to be a successful ballerina. Ryan then moves on to examine the question of setting admissions standards and also the problems some parents create by pushing their young children to meet these standards.)

Key Points:

• Fredrika Keefer is an 8-year-old girl who likes to dance.
• Fredrika and her mother, Krissy Keefer, filed suit because, as her mother puts it, she “did not have the right body type to be accepted” by the San Francisco Ballet School.
• Does the San Francisco Ballet School have the right to give preference to leaner body types? Yes. Every institution has standards that weed out those who are less likely to succeed. The reality is that all men and women are not created equal.
• But for me [Ryan], the more disturbing issue in this story isn’t about weight but age. Children at age 8 are already training for adult careers. By age 12 and 13, the children are training so much that they either begin homeschooling or attend a school that accommodates the training schedule. The child has thrown all her eggs into this one little basket at an age when most kids can barely decide what to wear to school in the morning.
• The parents of these children seem to be unaware of the problems that their daughters might encounter as they climb the ballet ladder: weight issues, physical ailments, social isolation, psychological pressure.
• There is no safety net for these children, no arm of government that makes sure that the adults in their lives watch out for their interests. The mother gets to decide what’s best for her daughter’s dancing career. The children like Fredrika have to suffer in this.  

(Source: Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum, 11th Edition, by Laurence Behrens & Leonard J. Rosen)