Ok. I hate sports. Okay, so all you people that are still with me, hear me out. Sports are ruining this country. Why are high school sports just as important as high school academics? Or college sports just as important or more than college academics? Who cares about RBIs, touchdowns, and goals when many kids don’t know the three branches of government, where Iraq is on a map, or the name of the first five presidents? I mean, really, all sports should be intramural, not for any money making, and just for plain ol’ fun and exercise. Why do professional athletes get paid millions and teachers, police officers, and prosecutors (!!) get paid pennies? We have badly behaving, cheating, women-beating, child-support dodging, steroid injecting brutes as the role models in our society. It makes no sense. We pretend in this country to value certain things: women, children, education, morality, etc. But most professionals in their 20s and 30s are crushed by an overwhelming educational debt with no relief in sight. Women are still paid less then men for the same work. Children are some of the poorest people in the country. If just half the money that was spent in Iraq in a one week was spent to revive and revitalize the educational system, we as a nation would be transformed. If a billion dollars a week was spent to change the inner city there would be no violence and we could spend more money on students than on prisoners. Do we want a country of kids that worship egomaniacal athletes, drug addicted musicians, and narcissistic actors or do we want a country of kids that try to emulate selfless philanthropists, altruistic educators and innovative engineers? Too bad we have the first part of my question not the second and nobody seems to care.
One thing though, this kid is FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE. Ok, one good thing about sports.
GO CARDS!
Have a safe and fun Labor Day Weekend!!!!
3 comments:
People are willing to pay professional athletes and musicians more money than teachers, police, military, and prosecutors because there are fewer of the former than the latter and the former have "skills" people are willing to pay to see; that's economics. Further, just because I may pay top dollar for a game or concert does not mean I admire them for anything more than their entertainment value and certainly not role models.
Anonymous said pure economics...This is something we don’t want to admit to ourselves. Money is the great equalizer in our society. Money talks and we walk. Better yet, money walks and we talk. Economics is about putting your money where your mouth is. It’s easy to say that you only are impressed with this or that aspect of entertainment however where your money is spent is a reflection of you and your values. This is very harsh but with some validity.
Just like Bill Mahr says, “In our country we say our heroes are teachers, police, firefighters etc… Is this because of the job they do or because they work cheap?” This is recent development in our society. Our athletes and entertainers make millions. How much did they make in the 1970s. They mad a lot of money but in consideration of inflation and all that good stuff, would the salary of an athlete from the 70’s be comparative to that of an athlete today?
Here’s my contemplation, “Should people who run after a ball on a field be paid millions, even if they are the best at it? Should teachers be paid exuberant fees? If the answer to both questions is no then who should be paid exuberant fees?
Here’s my qualm. I’m not overly upset that athletes and entertainer are paid in excess. In actuality I’m more for entertainers being paid high, as their careers are usually short even more so than an athlete. You have your top stars that make a string of movies for three to five years top and then we as the public are tired of their faces and you don’t see them anymore. However an athlete can play for up to 10yrs and can even have INSURANCE on their skills and clause contract which guarantee them payment should they be hurt. They also are give free rides through school and exposed to numerous contact which almost GRANTEES they have a way to make a living (And a good one) should they not be able to play.
Now something is wrong when the people we call our heroes aren’t able to live in the communities they serve, they can’t send their kids to school, and they have to struggle to make ends meet. Something is wrong when as a society we have found a way to support the overly inflated NFL, NBA, NL and company but we can’t fund research for AIDS, Cancer, public transportation, education, healthcare and the likes.
Now on the flips side, I will let you know that it is a myth that all these people are paid poorly. Some teachers are paid quite well. Here in Georgia a teacher with a bachelor’s in DeKalb county outside of Atlanta can start at $35,000.00 with full benefits. Masters $45,000.00 Doctorates, $55,000.00-$75.000.00 This is in the class room NOT administration. Administration, Principal etc.. Principal in the same district are paid between $80,000.00-$110,000.00 Not mention in the class room you get the summer holiday! What can you do with $55,0000.00 salary in the with a free summer. The teachers in rural areas are the ones who aren’t paid well. They make about $25.000.00 starting out! This is after you have spent several years in college. So with taxes etc..school loans.. You salary can easily shrink down to about $20,000.00 ($20,000.00 with a bachelor’s degree. Does anyone besides myself see a problem with that or is it just me?)
Education, as I mentioned, our education system isn’t as under funded as many would like to believe. Kentucky may be a different story. I have live here in Georgia which has some of the nation’s lowest level of primary education….but some of the highest paid teachers in the south. I know at least TWO black teachers that graduated for KSU when it was still regarded as one of the best in producing educators…where do you think they teach? GEORGIA. My 6th grade teacher (white) was from Lexington and she too move here to Georgia for more money. In less than 10yrs she was doing better off overall than a relative who’d been teaching in Kentucky school for over 15yrs! This is what she told me.
ABC’s 20/20 recently did a story on the condition of our public school system in America. He and several independent experts concluded the problem isn’t money. Here in Georgia in several well off districts, schools are being built at an average of $40million dollars! In his store he mentioned schools in so-called rich districts. Test wise these kid still did not perform as well as student in Belgium. I have one problem with John Stosell’s story. He mentioned all the problems with schools and thinks the problem would be solve by removing the monopoly from the school and making them compete for already scarce resources. (Who and where do you think would be able to compete better and where would the resource flow?) However, he did not mention the effect that parents have on their children.
He blamed the system and teachers and they do have a hand in the problem However, he did not mention the kid of the parents. Are our children that innocent that they have NO responsibility in their own education? Are parents that busy that they have not responsibility in their child’s education? I am speaking as a man with an associate’s in Education. Studies show that most successful students come for homes that emphasize education and other have parent that are educated. Stosell didn’t mention the number or lack of parent that ever attend a meeting with their child’s teacher. He didn’t mention the lack of parents who volunteer to chaperon on a field trip. He talked about the bureaucracy entailed with removing a bad teacher (And it is excessive.) However he didn’t mention the same bureaucracy entailed with removing a bad student or less than perfect candidate for traditional education.
Anyone who is interested or concerned with public education should see what the private school do differently than the public schools and then find out why it can’t be replicated in public education. The answer will shock you.
1. Can a student be rejected from acceptance in a private school?
2. Has a student in the last 30 years been rejected acceptance into the public school system?
3. Do public schools have to accommodate all students? What do I mean? Do public schools have to accept and try to teach children with physical, mental, learning disabilities?
4. Do private schools have to teach children with the same disabilities?
5. Can a private school suspend and expel a student at will (They have covenants dictating who will and won’t be allowed in their schools)?
6. Can a public school suspend and expel a student at will?
7. Is it required that a parent meet with a teacher in a private or public school?
Seriously, these are valid and legitimate issues in regards to education.
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