Competition Vs Inclusion

So the last couple of weeks have been crazy busy - we moved and I managed to get an abscessed tooth.  Not fun.  Then on Tuesday, I hear about a school in New Jersey changing their sports policy to allow basically any student who wants on a team to be on said team.  I need to admit here and now, before putting down the rest of my thoughts, that I don't know anything more than a few very vague details.  Apparently, a student got so upset at not making the team, their parents complained to get them on causing the school to change its policy.  Again, I do not know the specifics.  I could have any number of things wrong with the story I heard.

As for what I wanted to say about this "more inclusive" policy, I am in two minds about it.  On one hand, I am glad that kids who are serious about a sport but perhaps aren't as talented as others get to join their sports team, however, I am also upset at the even less realistic competitive environment this school seems to be promoting.  To explain what I mean:  When these same students attempt to get a job, will this make them think they should be hired despite possibly not being qualified because they were allowed to join a competitive team in high school but did not necessarily have the talent to back up the position received.  On the other hand, those who have focused and truly want to go on to become professionals in said sport may not get the chance because of the lack of ability to show how good they truly are to scouts for both college teams/scholarships and the professional teams.

What it comes down to is it could be good depending on how this new policy is implemented.  If, for example, they have a tiered system where all those who try-out automatically make a team but the team made is dependant on skill and talent.  Those who are dedicated and constantly practice make the higher competitive teams and those who thought they were able to get by without putting in the effort would be on the least competitive team.  Thinking about it, it would be similar to that of how most bands and academic teams function.   Those who are willing to put in the time and effort, get to be in the most wanted positions, but those who aren't willing to work hard to keep that position could end up basically being an equipment manager or last chance alternate.

If, however, they just let them join with no extra plan to ensure that those who are dedicated to what happens to be their passion can both pursue and be recognized for it, then it could truly be a detriment for everyone in that school.  Of course, I don't know what is involved in the actual plans for this particular school's new policy, but there will be those who are not willing to even give it a chance.  Because of this, there could be a lot of good from the policy that gets diminished.  At the same time, there are going to be those who can see no problems with the new policy.  The issue with that would be no making the policy better by looking at the problems and finding a way to fix them.

Again, I don't know specifics with this, but these were my thoughts based on the small amount of information I had regarding them.


I'm posting this a day late mostly because of the move and then Mother's Day (which I hope all mothers had a wonderfully relaxing day!)  Also, my computer still hasn't been put back together after the move, so I had to borrow my husband's.

Skillshare: a First Foray

I've been seeing a lot of things about ways to learn about things for free.  I mentioned MOOCs back in Super Bowl and FutureLearn, but I've found other programs since then.  Recently I decided to actually look into something both recommended by various acquaintances and advertised regularly on Facebook: Skillshare.

There's a lot to know about this site and eventually, I will post a review about the overall site, but I wanted to highlight something about one of the free courses I signed up for.  The course is called Blogging Basics and I chose it hoping to learn more to make me a better blogger.  The first assignment is basically to figure out what your blog will be about, and that is where I'm having a hard time.

When I finally decided to actually start a blog, I knew I didn't have much to offer.  I don't currently have any degrees in anything except the school of life where experience is the degree.  I never truly got into any of the fandoms that I found fleeting fulfillment in.  In fact, everything about my life is more of spontaneous decisions, going with the flow, and finding ways and excuses to keep from trying too hard.  So why did I start a blog?

I was feeling unheard on topics that my husband is not a fan of.  Then I realized just how hard it is to find reviews about certain things, so I set up two blogs.  One is a review blog.  I'm not a critic or professional reviewer, but a review is basically someone's opinion.  Some of them have more merit than others for various reasons, but all a review boils down to is that it's an opinion littered with facts about the reviewed topic(i.e. specific book, movie, event, item, etc.)  Sadly, I've yet to truly start on this blog though I have a list of things to review and post.

My second blog is this one.  It's not regularly posted to and I haven't done guest blogs or interviews for it, yet.  Maybe as I figure out where my niche is, I'll get some.  For now, however, I'm still exploring my options is the best way to put this blog.  Well, that and a way to air out what I think about various things.  It basically is my way to vent when I feel unable to truly unleash my thoughts because I'll be countered or agreed with before I get a chance to explain my thoughts.  Don't get me wrong, I love hearing counterarguments and various viewpoints of the same subject.  That would be why I follow so many different subjects.  The issue is that sometimes I feel as though my particular viewpoint isn't heard.

My husband is bad about trying to argue his point without truly taking in what I've said.  I'll try to understand what he's getting at with his point, but it doesn't feel like he wants to do anything but hammer home his particular opinion and ignore any new information in regards to the subject.  We actually spent over an hour once arguing over the wording used to say basically the same thing.  I had stated it originally, then he tried to claim to disagree but kept repeating what he was saying, not even trying to figure out if there was a different way to say it to get me to understand what he had said.  I, on the other hand, had tried to figure out what he meant and how exactly it was different from what I was saying.  When he finally did change what he said, it was the same thing I'd said.  Don't get me wrong, I can dig my heels in and be stubborn as well.  It's just I never seem to be listened to and, apparently, he almost always has to be correct.

That's not to say he isn't correct about a third to half of the time.  It just means that I got tired of trying to get him to hear what I was saying and found a different place to say it.  I don't typically air out issues he and I have more because I feel it's private and not necessary to share with the world than anything else.  This is an issue that makes me wonder if I'm actually speaking clearly or not since it happens with more than just my husband.  Once upon a time, I loved trying to argue my point, but now it feels like the more I try to argue it the less I'm willing to defend it because it feels as though I'm not going to be understood anyway.

It doesn't stop me from wanting to get information about things and what I feel about them out there.  So I found another way and that's where the blogging comes in.  I doubt this is what the teacher meant by building a platform for your blog, but I've never been able to focus on a specific subject for a long period of time before changing subjects.  After a while, I'll return to a previous subject.  I have many interests and decided I didn't want to keep myself forced to follow only one thing, especially when there are so many things that I'll be looking forward to remarking about, just check out some of my past posts.  There are reactionary posts as well as a small variety of random information.

Super Bowl and FutureLearn

So I meant to post this much earlier, and I would apologize, but that's getting tedious.  I believe I've mentioned that posts might be sporadic.  I promise I'm trying, but I still don't have my computer.  So instead I'd like to thank you for returning to my posts even with the waits between them.

For those who live in the United States of America, today was a bit of a special day - Super Bowl Sunday.  I'm going to be honest.  I know absolutely nothing about the Super Bowl except that it's a huge football event and the commercials during it are usually pretty epic.  That being said, I hope those who watched the Super Bowl were well entertained by either the game or the commercials (whichever reason you were watching it.)  My first time hearing about Super Bowl Sunday was from one of our regularly watched family shows as a kid.  It could have been Full House, Roseanne, or Home Improvement.  I don't really remember which one.  Football has never been a sport I really watched.  Heck, I've never really watched sports.  They tend to bore me from the home sidelines.  Even at the event, if I'm not participating or don't understand the game (like the fact that I just can't seem to grasp the rules of football) I quickly lose interest.

Outside of that...I haven't been up to too much, just trying to keep up on house chores...Oh!  I'm participating in some Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) through Future Learn.  It's kind of nice, and I can take it at me own speed working around everything, even putting a few courses on hold until I have time to return to them.  With my huge list of varying interests, this is a terrific benefit!

Anyway, hoping you guys enjoyed the start of February!  And Happy Valentine's a week early!