FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Dear Ms. Roberts,

     My comment is in reference to Selena Roberts' article in July 7, 2008 edition of SI called "Jocks Against Bullies."  The question you're dealing with is broad and it asks us to question how our schools function and how we need to rearrange our values to abolish a dangerous caste system that is so established that we are taking it for granted as "just the way kids are."  After all, that hyperbole you cite at the end of your article, "they [jocks] are the worst kind of people on earth" is a cliche.  That fact is indicative of a social problem that has been so obvious for so long that it is routine.  Routine cruelty.
    The extremely narrow methods to gain social status in high school--i.e. sports and beauty--is blatantly anti-American, a land in which people should be able to cultivate their minds and bodies in ways they choose to find happiness.  After all, Americans revolted and established the first democratic republic in the world so that there would not be such a dominantly entrenched social hierarchy.  The fact that it is so taken for granted in American school is appalling.  Sports are not wrong, but the false sense of entitlement that athletes get which is given to so few other students regardless of how they excel in equally worthy endeavors is blatantly unfair.  It may be a result of a society that obviously puts professional athletes on a pedestal (i.e. million dollar contracts, shoe deals, surrounded by fame, fortune and amour) as though they are gods and heroes among us mortals who do other things like: science, music, art, or poli-sci etc.  This dominant social hierarchy is likely the result of drastic underfunding in areas that don't pertain to the most mainstream sports and classes.  This starves so many programs, classes and clubs of teachers, materials and focus.  How can we build an inclusive community if the community doesn't promote ways to include people? 
     Cutting back on funding for these activities just makes those who don't do the mainstream sports. (i.e. basketball, baseball, football) even more lonely since they have so few other avenues to pursue their interests.  Jocks who reach out to other students by being kind to them aren't heroic, they're normal.  It only seems like heroism because those who are so routinely mistreated find any grain of kindness from their peers to be a blessing for which they're touchingly grateful.
     Obviously the problem is that so many students called "loners" just feel they have no community to belong to.  That's because these schools don't offer enough avenues to be a part of not because they weren't born to wrestle.  We don't need focus groups for many of these problems of bullying.  That's just a solution that requires much less funding and less effort than really solving the problem.  It makes it seem like we're doing more than we actually are so when a school writes it on a piece of paper that goes to administrators, it looks like they're doing something.   Just like athletes don't get better at a sport by practicing once for three hours, people of any age don't build self-respect, friendships, a healthy community or confidence that way either.
     We need funding for other avenues for young people to exercise their motivations and experiment.  That's what people who are sincerely concerned about this issue need to focus on and push for.  American schools need more clubs, and more sports.  More avenues for people to find a niche.  If you don't play football, what about ultimate frisbee?  Why not fencing?  and although this is Sports Illustrated, why not chess, English, Art and Music?  These kinds of activities build a community, build confidence, self respect, friendships and interests.  These are the core values of an education and those who understand this and cultivate it are wise beyond their years.  They can put their energies to something positive, not let it build within.  They help people cultivate themselves.  It gives someone a sense of well being, of worth and dignity to be a part of a healthy community.  These feelings aren't relegated to people over 19.  Everyone understands them.  To say that a workshop is going to solve any problem that's nationwide and occurs daily for 4 years at a time is preposterous. 
     Since the internet is a medium in which people can harass others without recourse it is that much more important to institute these kinds of changes in schools.  We need to start changing hearts and minds...those are muscles too that don't strengthen by exercising them once for three hours.  There are no police on the internet and the very value systems that allow the harassment to occur must change. 
     Members of the public press such as yourself--someone who reaches thousands if not millions of readers--need to raise the political and social issues of society and underfunding in US public schools that leads to or lets the harmful impacts of bullying and athletic social hierarchy go on routinely.  This will start hitting home because even politicians and people with money have kids...they just take them out of public schools if they have the money to avoid these problems.  We don't need more feel-good stories about pitifully small droplets of respectful kindness portrayed as heroism just because it's in a sea of frustration.   We need the truth of the social interconnectedness about the American school system from top to bottom and how it influences the students.  Your angle on athleticism is great, but the conclusion is wrong.  When I see kindness amidst that much agony i'm not seduced by the saccharine story, i'm depressed.  I see that the truth wasn't revealed, that the way your readers view the problem won't change, and the readership can go on exercising their jaw muscles about the issue