Opportunity or Liability?

[donfrancisco]

Dear Coach,

I read some of the other posts to your forum and I came across this statement by you in response to a reply by Coach Baker:
"But people -- being people -- will always opt for a prescription rather than understanding the material as a template."

As a lifelong educator in an admittedly very different field, may I respectfully suggest you not give up on your readers just yet.

As you may know, some of the Founding Fathers thought it best to not have a Bill of Rights. The thinking was that people --being people -- will come to think of the rights mentioned in the first 8 amendments as being exhaustive of the rights we possess as citizens. I, for one, am glad Madison prevailed and that we have a Bill of Rights.

Analogously, I'm also glad that you wrote SS and, with Coach Baker, PP. And I'm grateful for your pedogical efforts through podcasts, seminars, articles and this forum. The philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote, "From the crooked timber of humanity nothing straight can ever be made." And sometimes, as in your statement I quoted above, you give me the impression of being similarly cynical at times.

But where it not for the ignorant and wrongheaded, the contributions of educators like you and the other coaches would not be needed and they are so very needed. I submit that such ignorance and wrongheadedness should be seen as a challenge to be conquered, an opportunity to be exploited, rather then a liability to be lamented.

Best,

Francisco

[Mark Rippetoe]

We haven't retired just yet.

[donfrancisco]

Praise reason, alaluyah!