Johnston: Athletics are a form of education
The critic of varsity sports alleges that sports detract from the educational project of the University. Recruits get into Yale at a lower academic standard, athletes enroll in gut classes that make a mockery of Yale’s pretensions to scholarly rigor, and teams constitute cliques isolated from the intellectual engagement that characterizes the rest of the student body.
The apologist for varsity sports responds, first, by mitigating the hyperbole of the critique. Many recruits are just as qualified as other students accepted to Yale, most non-athletes could use a gut course...
Thanks, I think?
For all its sophistication, there is so little understanding here. It is impossible, too, to argue with someone who cannot possibly believe what he says.
Peter, I'm not sure you live in the real world, or at least, the same world I live in. I was excited to read about how athletics are a form of education (I believe that's true) but you took it somewhere almost irrelevant.
That being said, you have a talent for the kind of writing you do in these columns. Keep it up. If nothing else, it will make people think a little about the difference between theory and practice.
More deliberately, thanks. Really.
The foremost conservative intellectual on campus.
Actually, this made me, previously a vocal critic of athletics in uni, rethink my position. Thank you.
Peter, hate to break it to you -
If the Toad's/sweatpants crowd is the last defense of this "Civilisation", we must be worst off I thought. I meant, seriously, have you been in there?
The statements in this column only make sense if you've never met the people you are describing. Also, the definition of education is absurd. I dare you to tell me that you came to Yale to be inculcated into America's social norms. You wouldn't wear bowties and smoke pipes if that were true.
I'm sorry but this is total garbage... and the "Remedial Abdominal Training" stab was both a poor joke and a great example of what athletes are really like at Yale. Being an athlete totally limits you academically— you can't take any courses that interfere with practice. Which means, for example, you couldn't be an Art major. It's not worth my time or anyone else's to refute this garbage. Sifting through your self-indulgent vernacular, I've found that you've really said nothing important. Grab a kleenex and clean up your desk Peter.
@#8 - "I mean, seriously, have you been in there"
I am guessing you mean Toad's and my question is have you been in there? It is a place where people who respect each other and unwind after a tough week of studying hard, practicing hard, and playing hard. They do not judge you when you come in all uptight and judgemental. Just let loose, enjoy the atmosphere ad try to get yourself on the booty cam! If you don't like it, get out!
Very well said, as usual.