<p>If this could NOT become yet another cobrat against PG/jym/whoever thread that would be awesome. It is much easier to skip over his posts than it is to skip over his AND the many more attacking him for citing cousins blah blah blah.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I get your point but also ask…what if the kid wants to? My D is a just-OK player in a certain sport. She gave up the off-season travel stuff in favor of her other sport a couple of years ago. Yet, she still enjoys playing on the school teams for both, and spends a good two hours a day (double that on game days) playing the one she is not a star at. </p>
<p>I’m OK with it because she enjoys playing, practice keeps her healthier, she gets good social time out of it.</p>
<p>Now if I were forcing her to do it for college reasons, that would be something else and perhaps closer to what you were saying?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Agree. </p>
<p>However, whether something’s wasted effort or not is also not necessarily correlated with whether someone has natural talent for a given activity. </p>
<p>For instance, if a child/teen talented at violin, but were forced into it or to continue the activity by parents even if he/she is playing at a superstar level, he/she may personally feel going into it or continuing it is a waste of time even if he/she only needs to practice for 5 minutes to maintain his/her skills. </p>
<p>On the flipside, if someone enjoys a given activity…even if they’re middling or worse, it may not necessarily be considered wasted time by him/her so long as it doesn’t impact other important activities in his/her life. In that case, taking him/her out of said activity because he/she’s not a superstar or even “good” may not be necessarily in his/her best interests.</p>
<p>Crossposted with OHMomof2. :)</p>
<p>
I think it’s fine, as long as everybody understands that there’s a cost to continuing in an activity like this.</p>
<p>I think there are cases in which a kid has a really unrealistic dream, and probably needs some pointed advice. This is a tough situation, and not really what we’re talking about here.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What is the cost?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>LOL. So the “trick” is that they try to get ahead by doing well in school and on having impressive ECs and cocurricular achievements.</p>
<p>Sorry, but I don’t get it. How is this bad?</p>
<p>
Why is it in this country that deliberately competing athletically is lauded, but deliberately competing academically is scorned? College football players don’t get being hammered for pursuing football at the expense of “bettering our society”.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Critical reading does not appear to be your forte! You see negatives where there are none, and miss the obvious ones.</p>
<p>I think you’re right, GMT. But the easy criticism of this argument is the objective of athletics is to win a game, whereas that is not the point of academics. </p>
<p>I will modify the argument and say that by-and-large, it is much more accepted for one to aspire to be recognized for individual greatness in athletics even in team sports than it is to have that same need in academics. Walter Payton, generally regarded as a paragon of how an athlete should carry themself on and off the field, was sore for years that he didn’t get the call for the short run into the endzone in the Super Bowl. Instead, they gave the ball to William Perry. Great athletes certainly make complaints when a referee blows a call, especially if it is in a big game. Or they complain in college football when another program is chosen “holistically” to be in the better bowl game. </p>
<p>So why should they care–they are already famous and in the case of the professionals are making millions. They’re doing “well.” Who cares? There was a gymnast at the olympics who won the bronze but later discovered the starting score in one of his events was wrong (i.e., the difficulty of the skills is objective and they were calculated incorrectly); if it was correct, he would have won the gold. He filed a complaint after the award ceremony and said they should give him the gold medal.</p>
<p>Generally, if you are really good at something, you have passion for what you are doing. But it doesn’t mean you don’t want or expect to get recognized for it, whether that acknowledgement be in the form of an award, a promotion, more pay, or some other way you are keeping score. The positive reinforcement which drives people is often a mixture of external and internal rewards.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Let me spell it out, since now you are insulting my intelligence.</p>
<p>You could never have a thread listing out all the supposedly true stereotypes of minorities. If not, let’s hear them. Maybe someone feels left out.</p>
<p>One central point that you are making is that doing something academic to get ahead is venal. I get it. But there are alternative ways to getting ahead. One is by being pushy, manipulative, and in general stepping on other people. Another is to exaggerate one’s own accomplishments and try to fool other people. One long trusted method is to rely on personal connections or outright nepotism to get ahead, remnants of the Old Boys Network. You can also have one of your relatives donate money. All of these ways are used to get into elite schools. Personally, I think trying to be better at something is a more noble method.</p>
<p>You also complain that Asians make false accusations of racism. Are you really saying they are more likely to do this than other minorities? Is ethnic advocacy a big part of the Asian culture?</p>
<p>You also say they have a tendency to cheat, something which I have not observed at all. It is certainly not true in the U.S. </p>
<p>One of your problems is that you have an overly ideal vision of what elite schools are, in terms of admissions and just in general, and therefore anyone objecting to the way things are done must be incorrect or worse. I have a hard time believing you were ever a student at one, considering your overly rosy view of the student bodies at them and for how they are run. I mean, there are plenty of people which love their universities here, but none of them seem to lavish the same level of praise that you do.</p>
<p>I also very much doubt you have actually known any Asians, considering your warped view of them.</p>
<p>I’ll let people have the last word, but I think people should suspend the Asian bashing for one day tomorrow in the spirit of Christmas.</p>
<p>When it comes to self-interest or the interest of our progenies, nothing is sacred.</p>
<p>Kahans motivated cognition ?</p>
<p>[Ideology</a>, Motivated Reasoning, and Cognitive Reflection: An Experimental Study by Dan M. Kahan :: SSRN](<a href=“Page Cannot be Found”>Ideology, Motivated Reasoning, and Cognitive Reflection: An Experimental Study by Dan M. Kahan :: SSRN)</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>You again demonstrate how poorly you are reading, and how great you are in the use of straw men arguments. Just about everything in your last post is erroneous ranging from things I have supposedly written to your egregiously faulty assumptions about my experiences or education. </p>
<p>You really do not get it nor know the first thing about me. Stop pretending you do, or are able to interpret my positions correctly.</p>