I am now officially a bitter old crank
Here I am, dashing off angry "Letters to the Editor" as if I was twice my age. Has it come to this already? I suppose I can take comfort in the fact that I'm batting 1000 (which is a little misleading, since I'm 1 for 1)- they printed my letter.
Despite being "more liberal than Ted Kennedy" (to use the Republicans' coinage) Salon has good content. But I also have to admit that even I, being pretty liberal, sometimes think that Salon is a bunch of namby pamby, pussy whiners. At first it was just whining about losing the majority in Congress, the Presidency, the election. But sometimes it seems like they whine about any loss, political or personal. I'm a liberal and a Democrat, but nothing has hurt us politically more than this bullshit attitude of "we must protect everyone from everything". I suspect that some liberals don't care if we turn into a nation of wimps, and are promptly conquered by a tougher but less advanced civilization. I felt I should speak up, because this article was, to me, the embodiment of that pussification.
Dodgeball, of all things, is a cruel mistreatment of our chilren? For pete's sake, it's just a game. So what if some kids lose? There's nothing wrong with losing in dodgeball, especially if it helps you win in life. We, as a society, have to face certain realities. If we eliminate every arena in which weaknesses are exposed and exploited, there's no force to oppose the proliferation of weakness. I have had plenty of personal weaknesses exposed and exploited over the years. It's very unpleasant, I won't deny that. However, what also can't be denied is that the pain motivates. It leads to improvement and strength.
When an addict is getting clean, in agony of withdrawal, everyone knows you don't give him his fix to relieve his discomfort. So why do we give children their fix of unearned praise?
I'm not saying that all pain is good - all the motivation in the world is worthless, if you don't have the tools to improve. I won't sit here and defend the practice of pegging kids with rubber balls and expecting them to become athletic. Motivation is only half of the equation. Someone has to show them how to throw and dodge. They also have to show them the reward they'll get for their efforts. They need a taste of winning.
Despite being "more liberal than Ted Kennedy" (to use the Republicans' coinage) Salon has good content. But I also have to admit that even I, being pretty liberal, sometimes think that Salon is a bunch of namby pamby, pussy whiners. At first it was just whining about losing the majority in Congress, the Presidency, the election. But sometimes it seems like they whine about any loss, political or personal. I'm a liberal and a Democrat, but nothing has hurt us politically more than this bullshit attitude of "we must protect everyone from everything". I suspect that some liberals don't care if we turn into a nation of wimps, and are promptly conquered by a tougher but less advanced civilization. I felt I should speak up, because this article was, to me, the embodiment of that pussification.
Dodgeball, of all things, is a cruel mistreatment of our chilren? For pete's sake, it's just a game. So what if some kids lose? There's nothing wrong with losing in dodgeball, especially if it helps you win in life. We, as a society, have to face certain realities. If we eliminate every arena in which weaknesses are exposed and exploited, there's no force to oppose the proliferation of weakness. I have had plenty of personal weaknesses exposed and exploited over the years. It's very unpleasant, I won't deny that. However, what also can't be denied is that the pain motivates. It leads to improvement and strength.
When an addict is getting clean, in agony of withdrawal, everyone knows you don't give him his fix to relieve his discomfort. So why do we give children their fix of unearned praise?
I'm not saying that all pain is good - all the motivation in the world is worthless, if you don't have the tools to improve. I won't sit here and defend the practice of pegging kids with rubber balls and expecting them to become athletic. Motivation is only half of the equation. Someone has to show them how to throw and dodge. They also have to show them the reward they'll get for their efforts. They need a taste of winning.
posted by Jeff at 6/13/2005 10:33:00 AM
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