The View From Here

This is the age of specialization. Many kids are custom-made. They’re purpose-built from an awfully young age.

Once upon a time, the same kid who quarterbacked the football team also played point guard in basketball and shortstop in baseball. In some cases, he was president of the student body and valedictorian.

Many years ago a high-school coach noted that the leaders of the country used to be athletes, then lamented that it doesn’t seem to be true anymore.

George W. Bush was a cheerleader. Bill Clinton played in the band.

I told him there was a reason. Most coaches – this one, by the way, was an exception – don’t really try to make their players better men any more. They settle for making them better athletes.

It’s not just coaches, though. It’s parents, too. Many youngsters are hardly raised at all. Others are molded. Education has shifted from a broad base in liberal arts to an emphasis on specialization. One consequence is the engineer who can’t write a complete sentence.

Obviously, there are strong points. One is Joey Logano, the 19-year-old who won a Sprint Cup stock car race in New Hampshire recently.

Logano’s upbringing began in Middletown, Conn., but he moved to the Atlanta area at age nine to advance his racing career. He was home-schooled, his education catered to fit the schedule of his career. Veteran driver Mark Martin saw Logano race and predicted future stardom. Logano was 12 at the time.

Apparently all those sacrifices – schools, classmates, ballgames, proms – were for a good cause. When he won on June 28, Logano became the youngest driver ever to win a major NASCAR race.

Some fans will invariably allege that Logano hasn’t “paid his dues.” In truth, he’s been paying dues since his earliest memory.

Times change. It’s easy to cling to the memories of one’s own childhood and shudder at the notion that sandlots, roller rinks and bowling alleys have been replaced by iPods, laptops and video games.

Logano’s a tough kid. He has to be. Maybe his life has been as much fun as mine. They’re so different that I can’t even compare them. The differences are generational, socio-economic, philosophical and practical.

At an age when I was just getting acclimated to college, Logano is amassing millions of dollars driving race cars. I just get to write about them.

Honestly, though, I don’t envy Logano. I respect what he’s done, but I really wouldn’t trade places.

You may contact Monte Dutton at mdutton@gastongazette.com.