We Need Vince Lombardi in our School System

This is a modification of a rant I published a few years ago

A bit far fetched, but here is a thought. One of the reasons education in America is falling behind is that children are no longer driven to succeed, but rather just to pass. They are taught to pass tests, not necessarily to learn. They are shown over and over that just passing is enough. They now graduate from each level of school from kindergarten to college in the somewhat misdirected theory that, because so many will not graduate from college or high school, they are graduated from middle school to show they have accomplished something. Kids are given trophies for participating, not excelling. Score isn't kept in little kids' games because we don't want them to dote on winning.

Mediocrity is seen as the goal.  The goal we are teaching isn't to be the best you can be, but only be good enough to get the prize - that's my definition of mediocrity."

If Coach Vince Lombardi was running NASCAR, the standings after last Sunday's race in Arizona would be:

1. Brad Keselowski with 6 wins

2. Joey Logano  5 wins

3. Kevin Harvick 4 wins

    Jeff Gordon 4 wins

    Dale Earnhardt 4 wins

    Jimmie Johnson 4 wins

4. Carl Edwards 2 wins

5. Six drivers, each with 1 win

6.  Ryan Newman, and 5 other drivers without a win all season

Instead, NASCAR in all its wisdom, gives points for so many different things that Lombardi's philosophy of "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing" goes completely out the window.

Here's the current NASCAR standings:

1.  Denny Hamlin who only scored one win all season

2.  Joey Logano with 5 wins

3.  Ryan Newman with absolutely no wins all season

4.  Kevin Harvick with 4 wins

Note:  While all the other drivers will be on the starting grid for the final race, only the top four are competing for the season championship.  No wonder our kids aren't driven to succeed.  Keselowski, the driver with the most wins isn't eligible for the championship while Newman, without a win on his record all year is in third place and could conceivably win it all.    "See kiddies, if you play safe and finish well you, too, can become rich and famous. Don't worry about winning, that's too risky."

Ode to Joy

In the 1970's, I spent three years in Berlin, behind the Iron Curtain. Berlin was more or less an island, surrounded by a wall, insulated from those who would live free but who lived where they could not. I took this photograph in 1977, mostly because I was perplexed at the difference in dates. I figured Herr Urban was a victim of the wall, but that those who put up the signs didn't really know when he died.



The story is well known in Berlin. Herr Urban lived with his wife on Bernauer Strasse on the line between East and West Berlin. In August of 1961, the East Berlin authorities began construction on a wall and fences to prevent residents of the East from moving across town, or, as in Urban's case, across the street, to the West. Urban and his wife were frightened at the prospect of living in the socialist German Democratic Republic, so on August 19th, they rigged a rope at the window of their second floor apartment and used it to lower themselves to the street and freedom. Both fell, were injured, and were taken to the hospital in West Berlin. Unfortunately, Herr Urban contracted pneumonia and died in the hospital, but he died on September 9, 1961, having lived in freedom less than a month.

There are many, many more stories of those who perished while trying to escape, as well as even more who escaped successfully.   We who live in a free country, cannot possibly imagine what it would take to drive a person to leave his home, escape if you will, because freedom there is no longer a possibility.

In November, 2014, the free city of Berlin celebrated the 25th anniversary of the wall coming down. Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, who, though born in the west, was raised in East Germany presided over the ceremony, and the Berlin Staatskapelle Orchestra played "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which, until researching for facts just this evening, I did not know is the anthem of the European Union.

Ode to Joy.  A song dedicated to happiness.  The freedom which we take for granted in our country has been such a strong magnet to those who do not have it that they would risk life and limb to get it. 

Ode to Joy.  Amazing.