Why do we do sports?

Seriously, there's nothing inherently valuable about getting a round object of some sort into a net of some sort.  There aren't many moments in life I can think of that hinged upon the ability to catch a ball.  I'm impressed by folks that can do these things well, but I can't say I understand the amount of money those skills can earn.  

I'm not a pure utilitarian.  "Because I like to" is a fine justification for most things people do.  The more things that brings joy into the world the better.  However, anything to which we devote this much time, attention, and resources makes it worth asking now and then "Why, again, are we doing this?" Especially when we're talking about education.  It's the time, attention, and resources of schools that are my focus here. 

My perspective is that of a teacher.  I have limited time in a school year, in a unit, in a lesson.  What are the important concepts to cover?  What are important skills to master?  What are the important habits to encourage?  If I devote lesson time to something, students need to know there's a reason behind it.  Similarly, if my school devotes resources to sports teams via salaries and scholarships, or if my city devotes resources to sports teams via tax incentives and stadium deals, I want to know there's a good reason behind it.  

I'm not an athlete, but I like sports. I played soccer, tennis, and volleyball as a kid.  I was emotionally involved with the Pirates, Penguins, and Steelers as a teenager.  The Pirates loss to the Braves in 1992 felt like how Mom described JFK's assassination. The Penguins Stanley Cup teams motivated me to buy quite a few jerseys, hats, and merchandise.  As an adult, Steelers games Penguins games were a main source of social interaction for a large group of friends.  When I moved overseas, one thing that kept me feeling like an outsider was my lack of passion for and understanding of the local sports.  Finding groups with whom to play softball and volleyball brought me a lot of joy and a social circle outside of work.  On my first day at a new job in Connecticut, a person sought me out simply because he heard I was a Pirates fan, and a friendship bloomed from there.  Even last week, I spent a significant portion of my holiday bonus on tickets, parking, and concessions to see the Penguins lose to the Islanders. 

Clearly, sports has contributed a lot to my life, and I am not an athlete, nor have I ever been. But, there are pros and cons to everything. I like positivity, so here are the biggest pros to encouraging people to play sports:

• Physical fitness.  
• Good diet and exercise routines have more than a few benefits, so this is as good a reason as any.
• Injuries are going to happen, but when surgeries and concussions become too common, I get worried.  
• Goal-setting
• People need to learn how to set goals, focus on growth as they progress, and feel a real sense of accomplishment when they earn it.  
• Good sportsmanship. 
• Fair play.  Justice.  There's a primal concept.  What young kid hasn't said "That's not fair!" Agreeing to a clear set of rules, and holding each other to those rules seems like a good habit to encourage. 
• The old Oakland Raiders mantra of "Just win" seems antithetical to that.  I tend to think this is one area on which we're not putting nearly enough focus
• Teamwork
• Working together for a common goal.  There's another primal concept.  "We're all in this together" is an important concept to master, especially in a democracy.  
• The professional level of any sport seems to have plenty of examples of people ignoring this particular virtue, but that might be a bad example since those folks are trying to earn a living. Then again, if the pinnacle of any sport shows an abandonment of this virtue, perhaps we're doing it wrong. 
• Community-building
• Rooting for your friends to succeed.  Realizing that when you are playing for a team, you are representing the community.  Done right, that can bring out the best in everyone. 
• Pride in one's community is great, but when it turns to hatred of another community, it's defeating the purpose.  We need to remember that if we were born in a different city, we'd be wearing different colors.  

It's not an exhaustive list, but it's felt like a useful thought exercise for me.  Let's keep playing sports.  Let's just make sure it's bringing out the best in us.  If it isn't, remember, we can change how we do things. 

Predicted grades--the quirk at the center of UK university applications

USA and UK schools are different in many ways, but the university application process is very different.  The big reason is that students are judged mostly by exam scores that they don't receive until two weeks before they're supposed to start university.  More on that in a minute.  

Students start by creating an account on the University and Colleges Application System (UCAS).  All the universities are on there, so unlike the USA system where you have to fill out separate applications for every university, UK students just fill out one.  They have to write a personal statement summarizing why they want to apply for the subject they've chosen, and they choose the programs to which they want to apply.  In the USA you apply to the university and don't actually have to choose a major yet since everyone takes the same classes in the first semester anyway. Not so in the UK.

So, you have to choose your field of study.  If you want to study physics, you find programs that appeal to you.  There's a great variety even within a field. Physics, Physics with Philosophy, Physics with Maths, and Natural Sciences are all examples that might appeal to a physicist.  You are ultimately restricted to 5 programs on your application.

Students choose programs partly based on what they want to study and partly based on how difficult it is to get into the program.  This is where it gets complex, because remember, they don't take the exams until the end of the year.  

Classes taken in the last two years of high school (called Sixth Form) are A-level classes.  Students only take 3 or 4 of them.  At the end, they take exams and earn grades of A*, A, B, C, D, E, and so on.  After applying to the universities, students don't get accepted as such, they earn offers.  I might apply to a physics program and get an offer of AAB, which means those are the grades I need to earn. It doesn't generally matter what exam gets what grade, although a physics program could require me to earn an A in my physics exam.  If a student gets an offer and earns the grades, he/she is accepted into the program.  If not, then not.  

During the application process, students look at the normal grades needed for offers from that program.  Universities will only make offers to students likely to match them, so we teachers are asked to make predictions of what grades they will earn.  We make these predictions with a year still to go in their education.  If you give an honest appraisal that isn't as high as the student had hoped, it could be deflating.  It could also be motivating, but if the students predictions are all too low, it lessens their chances of getting offers from some programs.  On the flip side, if you err on the very hopeful side, predicting higher than you reasonably think they'll get, it can prevent students from seeing how far they need to go to reach that plateau.  If a student has overly optimistic predictions, he/she may be likely to fall short of any offers, leaving them in limbo when the grades come in.  On top of it all, universities will often make offers higher than they actually want.  Let's say Schneider University is happy with students getting ABB.  We may choose to only give offers of AAA in order to get smarter kids applying.  If students earn at least ABB, we'll accept them anyway. But if they don't have the AAA predictions in the first place, we won't give them the offer.  

These predictions are one of the quirkiest parts of the UK school system from an outsider's point of view, and the stakes make it an emotional part.  

Baseball mindfulness

It took moving to England to make me really appreciate baseball.  Oddly, it's a bigger part of my life now than it ever was before.  I watch nearly every Pirates game, and that wasn't even true during the Van Slyke years.  MLB.tv makes it simple to stream every game, so my morning routine has been watching the previous night's game over my coffee.  Before school was out, I could get through 4 innings and finish over dinner.  During the summer, I just watch it all the way through.  And every Sunday I have a game I can watch live.  It's been awesome.  It makes me feel like I'm still a part of Pittsburgh even as I start to lay down roots in London.

<sidenote> The Pirates would be smart to trade Starling Marte.  He is a lazy player.  They were smart to pick up Sean Rodriguez again.  He works his butt off. </sidenote>

I also play softball now.  I'd never played on an organized baseball or softball team before I lived in England.  I've played for three years now in London.  Between the two teams I play for during the week and all the weekend tournaments we enter, I play a lot.  I'm discovering that baseball/softball really teaches me to calm down.  I'm more competitive than I like to let on, and I get really pissed at myself when I don't perform.  Picture Rain Man smacking himself in the head.  That's not far from the truth.  I now realize I've normally avoided competitive situations sort of subconsciously because I don't like that side of myself.  But I love baseball, so I've finally had to face it head on.  If I think about the hit I need to get, I pop it up.  If I think about the catch I need to make, I drop it.  If I think about the throw I need to make, I sail it.  It's weird and counter-intuitive to me, but I only play well when find a way to not think about it.  Yesterday, down by two in the bottom of the last inning, one out. I'd flown out and popped out the first two times at bat.  A year ago, I'd have popped out again.  This time, I managed to talk myself into calming down.  "Watch the first pitch no matter what.  Wait for a good one, you'll know when you see it.  Watch the ball all the way.  Snap the wrists."  I got a double that started a winning rally.  Two days ago, I'm playing 3rd base in a close game.  Runner on 1st.  Batter singles, runner rounds second heading for 3rd.  "Maybe he gets here.  Don't worry.  Walk over to the bag.  Make a big target for the relay.  Watch the ball into the glove, then straight down and hold."  Got the runner out.  Snuffed a possible rally.  Softball is forcing me to calm down and focus.  

Even when it doesn't end well, which it often doesn't, the game is forcing me to find a way to deal with it calmly.  I'm at shortstop and a perfect double play ball comes to me.  I tag 2nd, throw to first, and the throw sails 10 feet above her head.  "You got one.  The force is still on.  Next time, slow down, eye contact, throw hard again."  The next grounder comes to me, the runner beats the throw.  "Runner was just too fast.  Take a step in to shorten the next throw."  Softball is forcing me to productively deal with failure. 

I have no choice, really.  I can't keep breaking my helmet throwing it on the ground.  

Baseball's best hitters fail 2/3 of the time.  Baseball's best teams lose more than a third of their games.  Harvey Haddix pitched 12 perfect innings and still lost the game.  And for 25 years, ESPN has been reminding me about Sid Bream and Francisco Cabrera.  Baseball teaches you to deal with defeat. 

Thoughts on Trump

I went to sleep last night around 11:30, interested in the election returns, but not worried about them.  I had put my voice forward for Hillary, and I felt reasonably comfortable she would win.  I was most curious about the margin of victory.  I woke up at 1:00 and checked the results.  Nothing notable, and I quickly went back to sleep.  I woke up again at 4:00.  Trump had won Florida and North Carolina.  I didn't get another wink.  It took a while for me to process that he was actually winning.  I streamed CNN for the first time and watched Trump's lead in the Rust Belt increase.  I showered while still hoping that this was just a good showing that would make Hillary's victory narrow.  By the time I called Uber for work, I knew it was over.  

I was deathly quiet in the early morning hallways.  Colleagues patted me on the shoulder, saying how sorry they were, hugging me like I'd lost a family member.  I wanted to hide in my classroom, but I felt oddly like it was a duty to let people see me work through it with some composure in the staff room.  I fought back tears during assembly.  I found comfort in my classes, but I never found my stride or my energy.  The Head even approached me at break and asked if I felt emotionally comfortable getting through the day.  I was grieving, and they knew it before I did. 

This is not the first time I cared about my preferred candidate losing an election, but it is the first time it's affected me emotionally.  I am feeling too many things at once.  I am afraid because we've handed power to a sociopath.  I'm ashamed because we've embraced a man who doesn't think women have rights worth respecting, doesn't think gays have rights worth protecting, and doesn't think immigrants make contributions worth cherishing. I'm sad because we had a chance to elect someone who earns respect through hard work.  Instead, we chose someone that demands respect before doing anything to earn it.  I'm confused because I see an obvious choice between a woman I yearn to be like (intelligent, dedicated, patient, cautious in victory and gracious in defeat) and a man I wouldn't let near children. I'm frustrated because someone who dedicated her life to helping people was lambasted for sending email from the wrong address while a man dedicated only to personal pleasure and self aggrandizement seemed unaffected by advocating sexual assault, attempted murder, war crimes, and near treason.  I'm worried because in all the attempts to make America great again, we have damaged the one quality we had that allowed us to be great at all, trust.   Trust in our government to honor the rights of all citizens.  Trust in our government to honor our commitments to our allies.  Trust that, though flawed as every government is, ours would ultimately act responsibly.  

Our government by the people is also a reflection of the people, and as one of those people I wonder about my small part in this.  We all contribute to the environment that has allowed Trump's ideas to flourish, either through our action or through our inaction. This election is a tragedy, but on the bright side, tragedy has a way of bringing people together to stitch the wounds, even if this particular one is self-inflicted. 

Royal mail can be a royal pain

Mail carriers in the UK have it rough sometimes.  There are houses here with names like "Birchwood" and "The Old Palace," house numbers that seem to follow no logical pattern, and even streets that randomly change names right in the middle just so more people get the joy of having "Number 1" on their door.  Actually, they'll usually spell it out as "one" rather than putting the number.  So, it must be a rough job figuring out just where everything goes.  

However, there is one practice the mail carriers must stop.  If there is a package larger than the mail slot and no one is home to take it, they deliver it to another house.  I am not comfortable with this policy at all, but it seems to be standard practice here.  The carriers don't ask if I know or trust my neighbors, they just give my package to anyone who answers the door and says "okay, I'll take it."  Firstly, it's rude to impose upon a neighbor without asking.  More importantly, it's rude to assume I'm okay with imposing upon a neighbor without asking me.  This isn't unique to the Royal Mail.  UPS does the same thing, but they've given me the extra pleasure of calling me during delivery, discovering that I am strangely at work at noon, hearing me tell them explicitly not to give my package to any neighbor, then ignoring me and doing it anyway.  I called that person's boss and complained on that one, and the boss thought I was weird for not wanting my package delivered to a stranger.  

If they cannot find a neighbor, they put it in a delivery center for me to come pick up.  That is perfectly understandable and acceptable.  Why that isn't the default is a mystery to me.  Perhaps the British are such friendly people that they can't imagine why anyone would not be great friends with his/her neighbors.  Maybe I'm a schmuck for having no desire to knock on every door nearby to make sure it's okay for them to hold onto my brand new electronics.  Maybe it makes a lot more sense now why so many of my colleagues have mail delivered to work.  

A year behind. A year ahead.

A year ago, I ended my year long temporary status and decided to accept a permanent contract. I still felt like I could learn more from this country and this school system. I saw room for growth. And I've hit a growth spurt. I was still trying to decide if I was doing a good job teaching these girls when my head of department moved up the ladder to a well deserved spot as head of the sixth form (the last two years of secondary school when kids take A level courses and apply for universities). I've been asked to take over as acting Head of Physics. What a Head of Physics does, exactly, I'm not really sure. But now I have a department to run. I'm still hoping that the exam scores of the first group of students I've fully taught turn out well. There's more to teaching than that, but you can't underestimate the importance of those scores here. If they go well, everyone will trust me a little more. I might even trust myself a little more. 

This past year, I've had plenty of students that I just don't think I reached, and a few that I definitely did. Teaching is all about effective communication, and these folks communicate far differently than I'm used to. Three years here, and I'm still adjusting to them, and they to me. In the USA, being overtly and persistently positive worked well at helping kids believe in themselves, though certainly not everyone liked that style.  Honestly, I think many of the students here just think I'm full of crap. In the USA, asking a few open ended questions when someone was having a bad day tended to earn their trust. Here, that's tended to make people uncomfortable and actually made it harder for them to trust me. 

The great challenge with communication is that what you try to say is not always what they hear. So I'll have to adapt my style. To a point, I am who I am, and I have to embrace that. But I can adapt, and I'll be a better teacher as a result. 

I have earned my colleague's trust, though, and that's a big bonus. Maybe teachers are better at hearing what I'm trying to say, even if I'm not speaking the Queen's. I've helped look after techies during the musical, helped calm nervous travelers in China and Switzerland, and helped keep up the spirits of hikers on rainy days. I've really enjoyed the hiking/camping trips they take here as a part of the Duke of Edinburgh scheme, and I'm going to do more of that in the future. I also helped guide some girls through an engineering scheme where they did some serious civil engineering design work. I'm getting involved here. 

So, looking forward to this next year, I'm going to have to figure out how to run a department here. I'm hoping to earn the trust of my tutor group as I help guide them through post-secondary school planning. I'm going to try to inspire girls to give engineering a try. I'm going try to help my girls earn those scores that they so desperately want, and hopefully get more to believe that they can indeed achieve them. My school trusts me to run this department for at least one year, and I need to prove to myself that the trust is well-earned. 

I have two more years left on my current work visa. So, after this next year, I'll have some more serious thinking to do. 

A layover in Iceland

Icelandair are trying to cut into the transatlantic market by offering cheap fares connecting through Reykjavik. They are trying to boost tourism by offering week long layovers at no extra cost. Both of these efforts worked on me, and by the sound of the American accents all over Iceland, I'm not alone. 

Iceland is definitely worth a visit, especially in the summer. They have geyser fields, tons of waterfalls, huge glaciers, and countless camping and hiking opportunities. The 24 hour daylight allows you to take full advantage of them all. Everything's pretty expensive, as with all Nordic countries, but the people are gorgeous and friendly (again, as with most Nordic countries) so it doesn't feel so bad. The beer is even pretty good. 

Cool weather, but hot water. Just like Yellowstone. No chance of getting eaten by bears, though. 

Serious waterfalls. No jagoffs in barrels. 

Waterfalls you can go behind. Or use to shoot shampoo commercials. 

Really picturesque waterfalls you can camp next to then hike along. 

Down the road, you come across lakes with freaking icebergs in them!

You can even pay people to show you how to put spikes on your shoes to walk along glaciers. Then take pictures of the schmuck who wears a helmet on top of a baseball cap while standing a foot from  an icy death. 

Then you can pray at churches that look like rocket ships commanded by Leif Ericson. 

Iceland is fun. It's worth a visit if you're heading across the Atlantic anyway.