From his first visit to the pediatrician, my oldest son, now 12, has always hovered around the low end of that great equalizer of child development: The growth chart. There?s nothing physically wrong with him; no congenital defect or premature birth stunted his growth. With two not-so-tall parents, he?s just a short kid?tenth percentile short, last-kid-on-the-risers short, sitting-down-in-class-pictures short. Though he entered seventh grade this fall, he?s sometimes mistaken for a fourth or fifth grader.
As much as I try to take my son?s shortness in stride, I?ve long worried about the way he might be treated because of it. When I was in school, the short kid was always picked last for sports at recess or for a partner at the square dance?or, worse, ended up pantsed and tossed in a dumpster. Bigger, tougher boys hurled epithets like ?shrimp? and ?peewee? across the playground at smaller boys. Recently, walking next to my son as he rollerbladed down our street, I momentarily thought he had grown two inches?and my gut reaction was one of immense relief. Thank God, flashed the thought, Now he?ll be normal. Now he?ll be okay. The nagging concerns about my son?s height aren?t just for his present, but for his future. With all the advances we?ve made in other areas of equality, there?s been relatively little progress around height bias. Culture continues to equate stature with status, especially for men. Celebrities from Tom Cruise to Prince have been rumored to fib about their ...