Sports Challenged?

Seriously, is this a word?

I have an insatiable love of words. Ask my wife, she's caught me reading a dictionary before. As a bonifide linguafile, I am fascinated with new words and I suscribe to several word-a-day type mailing lists. One of them is in fact called "A Word A Day" and is managed by the very competent Anu Garg. The list is usually loads of fun if your in to learning new words or if you just enjoy the English language. I say "usually" because every so often something inane pops up that sails through my anti-irritation filters and scores a direct hit.

At the end of every week, AWAD sends out a digest of feedback from the week's words. Usually these are clever additions, anecdotes, asides, or ponderings, filled with puns and clever word games... I mean, true, it's on the level of people who don't usually descend to the mortal realm to commune with the average English speaker and so, is somewhat socially awkward. Not the kind of things you'd say and get a laugh from in a typical bar. for example. In any case, I usually enjoy these digests as much as the daily words.

Today, the very first comment is from someone named Walter (actually I have his full name and email address) and he writes:

I am likewise "sports-challenged"...

I've often thought that if we, as a society, valued teachers as we value sports "heroes" and paid them accordingly, we might actually make something of ourselves as a nation. So, perhaps being "sports-challenged" is not a bad thing. Certainly it saves time for reading and PC-gaming.

Now, maybe I'm just in a grumpy mood, but I am kinda gettign sick and tired of the "poor teachers" routine. I am likewise getting sick of the sports bashing our enlightened society has picked up over the last 25 years. I'll admit, there are a lot of jackass athletes out there giving sports a bad name. They get paid a lot, yes. However, in much the same way you can't be a super model forever, sports heroes fade with time and in a few short years, they're out of a job. So a couple of million dollars per year sounds like a lot to you and me, but if that's your whole career... well, you better make enough to live on after it's over. They're idiots... well again, some of these "heroes" are just kids. In teh NBA there are guys pulling down big money and they can't even get into a bar. I'm willing to expect the same behavior from them as I would from any college kid.

But sports aren't evil. Competition isn't evil. Winning is great but, losing has its benefits too. The people who complain about sports are not only "sports challenged," but also sore loosers. I knew lots of kids without a prayer of ever playing a sport past the 8th grade PE level who adore sports. Losing never faded that love. I've been to a lot of events with large groups of people in my life, but my first Baltimore Ravens game in Baltimore changed everything I thought I knew about large groups of people interacting. The sensation of being with 80,000 people who all want pretty much the same things to happen is awe inspiring. I've sat next to people who I would otherwise never interact with and occasionally even been hugged my them during a game. Not many activities go so far in "bringing people together."

Now back to Walter, what's his problem? Well, he has a pretty bad additude for one. He's blaming athletic activities for something that is, in itself, not even true. When, oh when will The United States make something of itself as a nation? LOL. Kinda stupid when you're talking about a lone super power. It's like wondering when Alexander the Great is going to make a name for himself. Beyond that bit of sniping, Walter is also blaming sports hero worship for the plight of teachers in the U.S. The two just aren't connected. Here's why:

Professional Athletes get paid based on talent or ability. The most talented athletes command the highest salaries. Sporting events bring people together and most people enjoy that, especially if the home team wins (most people like to be behind a winning team.) To win you have to have the best players and they cost money. The sytem drives itself.

Teachers get paid based on union negotiating. All teachers make prety much the same regardless of talent, or ability, or the number of wins they get. So you will not get more from teachers if you pay them more. You might attract people to teaching who would have considered a different career path, but not all of those will be better teachers. Now if a city (or school) wanted to have a winning faculty that outperformed other schools, they'd have to put together a talented team. They'd have to recruit talented teachers and get rid of bad teachers. Private schools do this with their faculty. They do it with salaries and they do it with other incentives as well, like better facilities, environment, teaching opportunities. Competition for teaching positions ensures the best teachers are present. Makes sure the teachers present are giving their all to the job. The better they teach the better the pay and the more opportunities they get. Since, public schools are not run this way, there is no incentive to excel. The guy graduating students who can't read is going to keep his job and make the same amount of money as the girl who graduates 90% of her students with college futures.

In many ways that comparison illustrates basic differences between a socialized system and a capitalixed system. Teaching is a socialized activity (as in socialism) and therefore, performs only as well as it needs to. Sports operates under a capitalistic system that rewards excellence and therefore inspires people to seek it. In almost every instance, socialism in the world has failed. It expects an enightened view of work, and personal value that cannot exist in our world. Not as long as material resources are finite.

So to respond to poor, misguided Walter, teachers will need to increase their value to society accordingly to be raking in the bucks that sports heroes do. In my life teachers have been of little value for the most part. They come and go, and I can't remember half of they're names. Now, don't jump to conclusions... there have been a handfull of teachers in my life that I think did more than all the rest combined for me. I value them like professional athletes... and if it were up to me they would be compensated with the salaries of every other teacher I've been subjected to. However, it's not up to me. There is no marketplace for excellent teachers... there's definitely a market... but no marketplace. Teachers should put themselves on the bidding block and see what each one will bring in. Maybe we should have Teacher drafts? and teacher agents? and teacher no-competition contracts? Teacher recruiters going around to universities looking for the up-and-coming. Then we'd see the United States make something of itself!