Friday, April 9, 2010

Kids and sports

I live in the Bible belt; in fact, pretty much the buckle of the Bible belt. There are a whole lot of born again Christians in Texas. However, we are not a majority by any stretch of the imagination. In the culture at large God is still popular, but it is more akin to the way Santa Clause is popular than to a true widespread recognition of the God of the Bible. Anyone who lives here can tell you that the true objects of worship in this neck of the woods are beer and sports.

Making idols of beer and sports is bad enough, but down here we've developed an especially sad version of sports worship. We have combined the need that many parents have to vicariously live the life of a sports hero through their children with the notion that sports are worthy of worship. This has created a monster of sorts that I have long found to be disturbing. I have wanted to write about this monster often but never seem to get around to it. The other day, however, I heard a story that is very typical of the monster about which I speak. It hit so close to home that I got pretty riled up about it and decided to finally write, or begin writing, some of my thoughts on this monster.

A friend has a child involved in a local Little League baseball program. The child's coach is a man who previously coached one of my kids. I felt at that time that this man took kids' sports way too seriously. Well, the coach said something to the child that bordered on a threat. When the parent confronted the coach he denied it saying that the child had simply misunderstood. A few days later one of the parents witnessed the coach treating several of his players in a way that bordered on physical abuse. Let me take a moment to note that this parent is not an over-reacting whimp like some of you are thinking right now. This man was a soldier and is a sports fan himself. He was not over-reacting.

At this point the parents had knowledge of two extreme incidents in a week's time, their child was rapidly becoming disenchanted with the coach and the sport itself, they wanted to make sure that things did not get any worse. Therefore, they decided they ought to take matters to the league officials. They phoned the league president. The man admited that they had received other complaints about this particular coach. However, he said that he also had parents request this coach for their children because this coach gets results. Furthermore, he stated that his own son was on the coach's select team and he would not offer any type of reprimand. He also refused to transfer the player to another team.

There ya go. There's a perfect example of what has gone wrong with sports. We have adopted the attitude that in the sports world, even the sports world of nine year olds, that the ends justifies the means. The coach, by virtue of the good ol' boy club (which is also prevalent in Texas), gets to use unethical methods because he wins. The boys learn that its okay to break the rules as long as your team wins.

Think this is an isolated incident? Think about the NCAA basketball tournament that we watched all during March. What happens at the end of a game when one team has a slight lead and the other team needs the ball back? The losing team fouls.

"So what?" you say. "That's just strategy."

Ya, the strategy is that you break the rules if it gives your team a shot at winning. That's what we're teaching our children. Then we are surprised when we hear about individuals at all levels of the private and public sectors who willingly engage in unethical or illegal behavior if it helps them "win" at making money or getting elected or getting a job or whatever.

I'm sleepy. More on this subject soon.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

The lost art of teaching

First, a life update. Granny died on Monday. We had the service on Wednesday. Been a tough year. Been a tough week. Lots of good people from BMBC and Meadowbrook and other relatives and friends have really stepped up ministered to us with calls and visits and food and so forth. Thank God for his people.


Now, have you noticed that its no longer politically correct to teach? Apparently its not couth anymore to have a class where one person teaches and a few others learn. One can be a facilitator, or one can invite others to "join the conversation", or one can make suggestions, or blah, blah, blah. Drives me crazy.

We have become so arrogant as a culture that we can't stand the idea that someone else might be able to teach us something. Therefore, we have had to find another way to describe this communicative process where someone transmits knowledge and wisdom to others. The problem is that none of these politically correct descriptions are honest. The truth is that it is, in fact, possible for one person to teach another something.

Furthermore, the implications of the notion that we are above another teaching us something are rather daff. If one says that he cannot be taught then the options that follow are pretty illogical. If one cannot be taught the first possibility is that one already knows everything there is to know. Obviously, that is not logical. The second possibility is that one already knows everything the "teacher" knows and therefore, the teacher cannot impart learning to him. Very arrogant, hard to measure; yet totally unlikely. The third possibility is that one is not capable of learning. That would be pretty sad but cannot be true since one learned enough to make the claim. Not logical either.

I say, then, that we just quit all this politically correct crap and admit it when we have a class or seminar or conference or whatever. Call them what they are. They are not merely conversations or dialogues or thought sharing communities or whatever other touchy, feely, stupid names one wants to give them. The first step to solving a problem is admitting one has a problem. So, admit that you are capable of learning and that someone else is capable of teaching you. You might just enjoy this freedom of being intellectually honest instead of being trendy.