For a few days in 2017, the “Gifted Kid Burnout Bingo” meme took over the internet. If you grew up in the American school system, I’m guessing you can see where the meme is coming from. Lots of kids who were told they were “gifted” growing up seem to struggle with the weight of high expectations, leading to burnout and dissatisfaction. If Hermann Hesse were a 21st-century meme maker, he would have created Gifted Kid Burnout Bingo. But because he was a kid in early-20th-century Germany, he wrote Beneath the Wheel.
In Beneath the Wheel, a kid named Hans Giebenrath does well on a standardized test and leaves his small German village to become “educated.” The pressure that he feels before, during, and after the test makes him unhappy – he’d rather be enjoying the beauty of nature. But the adults around him are so invested in his “success” that they ignore what he actually wants.
It’s not a very subtle story. Hesse thinks that modern education only cares about performance and leaves out the most important parts of living. He’s not wrong, necessarily, but the story doesn’t offer much in the way of solutions. As a big Hesse fan, I enjoyed learning more about his childhood (the story is semi-autobiographical). And, as always, Hesse is a great writer. I still prefer his other books.
Nick Beachy 