A Politically Correct World?

I am sure this relates to many things today, not only sports, and am wondering how ‘correct’ it really is to raise our children in this manner…

While standards have certainly declined over time we do still live in an adult world where poor performance is not viewed as OK and it is not acceptable to fail, even if you ‘did your best’. Yet it would seem when it comes to our children we are ignoring that fact and allowing a system to exist that is promoting a society of ‘happy under-achievers’ and to a certain extent teaching those who do strive to better themselves that even if they do, we still have to be fair and offer the same to those who are content with, or only capable of, far less, which is a real shame. I will use baseball as my example here and while one has to recognize the impact of things like the coach’s kid being placed in that prime position no matter how incompetent he is, since nepotism, greed and your position in the clique all play a role in the political picture and they have existed longer than the term ‘political correctness’ and it’s practice has, my intention is to focus on the change in thinking that seems to suggest someone with poor abilities should be treated the same as someone with a far superior skill set.

Clearly this lowering of standards is creating unrealistic expectations for parents and children alike and I can hardly see how this is the proper way to prepare them for entry into the real world. Now that we have exchanged a process where it was clearly understood a limited number of the most qualified people would be selected (much like real life) and replaced it with one where anyone who applies is not only accepted but should be considered equal to all others, in spite of large variations in skill level, we might want think over the long term consequences this may have. I will put forward two scenarios, one from each end of the scale, in an attempt to open some eyes and minds to the potential outcomes such irresponsible behavior may have on our children in the future.

Let’s start off with little Billy… Billy is a kid who might not have made the team in years gone by, I could list some reasons why that may be but in most cases the flaw would be apparent and while this characteristic will prevent him from excelling at baseball he certainly has a niche, assuming he would be urged to find it rather than led to believe he is baseball player material. Instead he joins the team, and like everyone else who joined, is automatically accepted. You may say that this builds his confidence and in the short term it may, but the reality is that any effort he expends here is being wasted as he will eventually have to move into the real world, where he will immediately be cut from the team, his dreams dashed against the rocks when it would have served him better to have looked for something he would be able to excel at right from the start, now that time was lost on something that could never have led to the expected conclusion. Worse still is that in many cases Billy’s parents will have urged coaches to place him in positions another player is obviously more suited for which not only reduces the teams effectiveness, but robs the player who is qualified of valuable practice in that position, leading us to little Johnny’s dilemma…

Little Johnny is a talented baseball player… However, by the time the coach’s decide where their kid’s will play, Bobby’s daddy buys him a position and members of the organizations clique have all been offered what they want, not much remains and Johnny is either sent to the outfield, or at best must share the position he is suited for with several others of far less skill. Worse still, when Billy’s parents begin to complain that he is not being treated fairly who do you think is served even more injustice, certainly not the coaches kid, in fact Johnny shines a bit too brightly and the coach does not really want him to appear better than his own son so Johnny gets pushed farther off to the side. Sadly, Johnny was the one kid on that team who could have made it to the professional level but either dropped out because he grew tired of removing splinters from his ass or never got the practice and exposure that would have allowed him to achieve that goal so in the end both Billy and Johnny got screwed, stupid huh.

Certainly children’s baseball organizations have never been perfect, these flaws and more have existed in some form for an eternity. What is different is that it now goes far beyond baseball into something that is being embraced by far too many who appear blind to what they are actually doing. Baseball was once a way for baseball players to learn about success, failure and teamwork but when you hear the coach tell a kid who will probably never actually hit the ball that it is OK, or that he did his best you have to wonder what went wrong because one has to assume his future boss won’t see it that way.

Perhaps it is best summed up by the recent revision of the saying ‘practice makes perfect’ into ‘practice makes us better, nobody is perfect’ – what kind of shit is that, maybe nobody IS perfect, but what about setting goals, on the other hand why even try… Do you really want to wake up one day to hear the announcer at a major league game saying “this is the first hit of Billy’s career and it is a pop fly that will be fielded by the shortstop…oh wait, he dropped it, but that is OK, maybe the sun was in his eyes, he still has time to make the out at first…eww, cannot believe the first baseman dropped that, maybe something is wrong with his glove”… Remember, only you can end stupidity.