Studies and the Sports Kid

Kids who are very good at sports obviously need to spend most of their time practicing. That in turn leaves no time for studies. Parents of such kids therefore get them admitted to schools that promote sports because then the school will ensure that such kids pass the exams. I remember my mom talking about the “nudge” to pass Ajay Jadeja when she taught him (if that’s indeed the word for a student who rarely comes to class) at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya.

Some teachers resent the situation. Others let it go. Yet others feel it’s a necessary stance to take if we want to encourage kids to look at sports as a career option.

Of course, the kid in question knows the situation. And flaunts it. Andre Agassi, in his awesome autobiography titled Open, admits just that from his stint at a hostel-like tennis academy owned by the then famous Nick Bollettieri, an academy that also provided schooling:
“The teachers know that their jobs depend on Nick, so they can’t flunk us, and we cherish our special status.”

Back then, Agassi was just a kid. So as the creme de la crème at the academy, he extracted an even bigger “perk” from Nick, namely that he wouldn’t even have to go to school and instead would do schooling by correspondence! Here’s how he felt when he got his demand:
“You’re fourteen years old, and you never have to go to school again. From now on, every morning will feel like Christmas and the first day of summer vacation, combined… No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher’s dirty looks. You’re free Andre. You’ll never have to learn anything.”
Ask any kid, sports superstar in the making or otherwise, and they’ll agree that that is the very definition of heaven.

Unlike many sports stars, Agassi however comes across as having turned into a very mature guy... later in life. Which is probably why he also had this to say on the same topic:
“We feel a lordly sense of entitlement never realizing that the thing to which we’re most entitled is the thing we’re not getting – an education.”
Now that’s something only an adult would say. Correction, make that “an adult with kids”. Trust me, I know…

Comments

  1. Ramiah KumarDecember 30, 2017 at 6:38 PM

    Good one. Such musings are worth spending time on.

    There is a mention about how adult view and children view differ. Yes indeed. Throughout life - from babyhood to childhood to adulthood to steady declining with age - at each stage the mindset, outlooks, preferences and opinions keep differing of course. Judgement on all that would only amount to a subjective indulgence. Instead, if we stand back and observe, we can almost view the world like Shakespeare did - each one according to one's time and background.

    As to "education", nobody knows if there is any standard or correct definition for it. Nor, there can be any methodology in education which would be given a clean chit. Almost everybody will have something to say on how different it all should be! :-)

    Anyway, this is what I have come to believe finally. Life is non-stop education, more than anything coming in the banner of education. Nobody can quit the life-education; nobody can segregate 'doings' in life from 'learning' from life. Since I am a believer in life after life after life after..., I am also convinced that the education which life and nature have decided to offer each of us is a non-stop, tailor-made and continuously-incremented kind of stuff. Pretty tough stuff, this weird education I mean; but from some other angle, I seem to love it too! :-) Looks a weird idea? Maybe. Why not we ourselves get as weird as life itself is? Savvy?

    ReplyDelete

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