

Achieving Grace - Alex3917
http://alexkrupp.typepad.com/sensemaking/2009/02/achieving-grace.html

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swombat
A pretty far-fetched theory, resting on a lack of definition of what "grace"
actually is, and a lot of very big assumptions that are not substantiated.

I think a better structure for this article would have been to make a good
case for what "grace" is and why it matters, and then, once that concept is
established, give examples of how "grace" is achieved by rowing... But even
then, this would have been fairly hand-waving.

I may just be blasé about this, but it seems to me that the central point of
this article is ultimately quite weak.

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Alex3917
I do actually define grace at the bottom: Helping others you are competing
against without feeling conflicted about it.

My point was that unless you learn to do this, it's very difficult to achieve
success as an athlete. So devoting yourself to sports sort of encourages a
certain level of spiritual development.

~~~
swombat
I think the problem there is that this is a very novel definition of grace.
You need it to be established firmly in the reader's mind before you can go on
about how to achieve it. Focusing the first part of the post on establishing
that definition would have worked better.

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herdrick
The reason elite schools play sports is to build a stronger sense of loyalty
to the school among alums, especially alums with money to donate. But I think
it's better for kids to separate the school from the sports. Put the kid into
a independent sports league. And it's better, I think, to be playing in an
environment where the competition for positions isn't as intense - i.e. a
smaller school or sports club.

In a related matter I see that Sidwell Friends does play football. I had been
wondering about that. Here in Washington State, the best small private high
schools don't.

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Rod
Caltech and MIT are elite private schools, and sports are not mandatory there!
What a sad, pathetic, weak article... I wonder how this crap even got upvoted
to the main page.

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unalone
Considering John Taylor Gatto is a famous high school teacher, it's a logical
assumption to make that he is referring to private high schools, many of which
_do_ in fact make sports mandatory.

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Rod
Isn't it true that when one wants to make a point (especially a polemical
one), one should remove all ambiguity? If "schools" refer to "high schools"
not universities, then the writer should make that explicit.

"Mandatory sports" means "mandatory team sports", I presume. Schools don't
want students to be in shape, they want students to feel loyalty towards their
_alma mater_.

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unalone
That's a valid point to make - and somebody's argued it on this thread
already.

I agree that ambiguity should be removed, but that's a conversation for
another day. I don't feel this particular story warrants it.

~~~
Rod
Let's see:

\- the author does not define "grace"

\- the author does not define "sports"

\- the author does not define "schools"

Sure, the text is not ambiguous at all!

Maybe I am just being a pedantic academic, but in Math if you want to make a
point using X, Y and Z, you usually start be defining X, Y, and Z. Human
language is vague already, there's no need to make it even worse.

