Essay Questions

What is the significance of Treehorn’s mother’s obsession with baking a cake in the opening scene?

In the opening sequence, Treehorn’s mother is so obsessed with baking a cake that she doesn’t even pay attention to her son telling her he seems to be shrinking. She complains out loud more to herself than to Treehorn, “I just don’t know why this cake isn’t rising the way it should” before comparing her effort to Mrs. Abernales’s cakes which, “always rise.” This comparison of her own apparently flawed cake-making expertise with a neighbor’s cake which always bake according to plan is complex metaphorical imagery dealing with the issue of parental anxiety over childhood development. She is positioning Mrs. Abernale’s cakes as the “norm” behind which her own efforts lag. Obviously, the comparison being made here is with her own son’s developmental lag in “not rising” according to normative expectations. The complexity of the scene is given further intensification by the fact that Treehorn’s mother seems to be psychologically transferring her anxiety about her son onto the cake which complicates the matter by adding the issue of parental avoidance into the mix.

What satirical point about the educational systems is being in in the water fountain scene with Treehorn’s teacher?

Treehorn’s teacher arrives to find him jumping up and down in an attempt to get a drink of water from the fountain in the hall. The last time he was in that hallway, of course, he had no trouble getting a drink of water because he was tall enough to use it. The teacher’s response is condemnatory, however, as she first informs Treehorn that he should expect no special privileges merely because he is shrinking. She then punishes him by sending him to the Principal’s office. The satire here specifically indicts the foundational approach to the education which operates on the unsound premise that kids develop in all respects at along roughly the same chronological timeline. This is why grades are separated not according to ability but rigidly according to age. Treehorn is the exact same age he was the day before, but developmentally he is significantly different. Underlining the satire further is that Treehorn is then actually accused of seeking special privilege for something beyond his control that violates the poorly implement logic of the school system built upon the unsound premise pf predictive normative development.

How does “The Big Game For Kids to Grow On” make a commentary about the role of play in children’s development?

Near the end of the story, the cause of Treehorn’s shrinkage is finally revealed to be connected to a board game he had playing just before the started getting smaller. While playing the game, he had had to move his game piece backwards seven spaces on the board. Upon taking up where he left off a few days later, he discovers that by moving his game piece forward on the piece, he begins to grow again until he finally he is exactly where he was when he started. He then voluntarily stops play even though he could potentially keep going and experience the exact reverse of his original situation by actually getting bigger and bigger, thinking to himself “Well, I don’t want to get too big.” The board game thus becomes a subtle critique of the implicit rules such games and toys place upon childhood development. The object of the critique are expectations created by the makers of games who place age-related suggestions on the packaging. A game or toy carrying an advisory like “For ages 5-8” is not a law that must be observed, of course, but its very presence acts almost like a rule that parents or kids will govern its use by. Many children older than eight will automatically reject a carrying such an advisory as being for “babies” while many parents may bypass a game carrying this advisory as being too advanced for their four-year-old. The influence that games have on childhood development is illustrated in this sequence of the book as being far greater—and potentially damaging—than might be supposed.