TEACHERS AND COACHES
[This Monday’s Archive was originally published on November 17, 2005. The best teachers forge character through discipline, competition, and the earned confidence that comes only from mastery.]
The difference of commitment to sports versus academics by students and parents is striking, but don't believe for a minute that the same bias is not institutional as well. I have taught now at every level of American academia and I have yet to give a test or assign a project that was so important that it caused a game to be canceled or missed.
However, from elementary school to college, I regularly have had class time canceled, projects excused and test times altered to cater to athletics. In fact, it seems any academic activity humbly bows before the holy incantation, “Uh, I'm going to be gone; we've got a game that day.”
This explanation is not the bitter ranting of an egghead who was always picked last in gym class. Rather, I'm a former collegiate athlete and high school coach who is intrigued by what could be accomplished if we would bring our athletic commitment into the classroom.
And, because attitude is not enough, we should also contrast coaching to teaching, so that we might re-learn some valuable lessons about instructional methods. To this end, I see three prime areas for consideration.

The recent Democrat cry of “affordability” is ironic in many ways.

It was the political equivalent of Bill Belichick’s teenybopper girlfriend — a moment so utterly incomprehensible, all you could do was shake your head in disbelief when you heard the news. “Wait… WHAT happened?!”
In the shadow of every government shutdown, a deeper crisis emerges, one not of policy, but of identity.

The racialist influencer Nick Fuentes has caused an uproar with his appearance on Tucker Carlson’s podcast.

Do words have any meaning? Most people think so, which is why there is an endless debate about which words should be permitted by law, which should be a matter for the law, and which words should be debated in the realm of manners.
For centuries, Britain — and England in particular — has represented a civilizational ideal for much of the modern world.

