Unpopular Opinions (sports edition)

[kphoger]

I didn't even bother with prom.  We moved so much when I was a kid that I had almost no connection to the kids I went to high school with.  The teachers kept saying I would regret not going, I never did.

My senior year, I went to visit a college during prom week-end.  Drove to Denver, boarded an ATA flight to O'Hare, spent a few days with a bunch of other prospective students, sang karaoke (American Pie by Don McLean) at Dave & Buster's at one point with everyone.  I'm sure it was a much better time than prom would have been.

[Max Rockatansky]

I didn't even bother with prom.  We moved so much when I was a kid that I had almost no connection to the kids I went to high school with.  The teachers kept saying I would regret not going, I never did.

My senior year, I went to visit a college during prom week-end.  Drove to Denver, boarded an ATA flight to O'Hare, spent a few days with a bunch of other prospective students, sang karaoke (American Pie by Don McLean) at Dave & Buster's at one point with everyone.  I'm sure it was a much better time than prom would have been.

In middle school in Connecticut I was a lot closer to the kids I went to class with.  I took a girl I knew to the 7th grade dance and we spiked the punch with some vodka.  We both got pretty wasted along with mutual friends but it was fun.

My family moved to the Lansing area a couple months before the start of the 8th grade.  For whatever reason I never really hit it off with kids in my class and that lasted through high school.  Probably didn't help that I didn't want to move and had a really bad attitude about it.

[JayhawkCO]

I went to 5 proms. Too many.

[kphoger]

Sometimes I think our kids are going to turn out too weird, with their having been homeschooled and having nearly all of their social interaction be at church.  Then I look at the kids who are actually in public school, and how weird they are too, and I'm good again.  Weird is the new normal, I guess.  Which, for weird people like me and many of you, might have been nice back when we were in school.

[1995hoo]

I didn't even bother with prom.  We moved so much when I was a kid that I had almost no connection to the kids I went to high school with.  The teachers kept saying I would regret not going, I never did.

I didn't go, and we only moved one time during my school years (a move that didn't affect which school I attended). I just had no interest in going. Still don't feel I missed anything. I've never been to a high school reunion, either.

I did see some high school friends—none of whom I'd seen in over 20 years—at a funeral Mass for one of our teachers maybe 10 years ago. It was nice to see them, sad circumstances notwithstanding, but on the whole I've never felt much interest in reconnecting with most of the people I knew in high school. (Last time I saw someone I knew from high school was at my college class 30-year reunion last year.)

[Rothman]

Sometimes I think our kids are going to turn out too weird, with their having been homeschooled and having nearly all of their social interaction be at church.  Then I look at the kids who are actually in public school, and how weird they are too, and I'm good again.  Weird is the new normal, I guess.  Which, for weird people like me and many of you, might have been nice back when we were in school.

I don't generalize when it comes to homeschooling.  I've seen kids come out of it ready for the world faster than those in public education and kids come out of it totally screwed up by it.  All depends on the skills, expertise and devotion of the parents in the instances I've witnessed. 

Unfortunately, my kids were peers with kids in our church that were being "unschooled" in a very destructive manner by stubborn parents.  The parents were self-starter nerds and thought their kids would just genetically follow suit and were, of course, offended to the point of even moving away from anyone else pointing out aomething was very awry (moved out of the county). My kids have a very anti-homeschool bias as a result of their interactions with the stunted development of those couple of kids.  I suppose there was also another homeschooled kid that was sharp as a tack but very socially awkward that also affected my daughter's perception, but the unschooled kids were quite severe negative examples...

[kphoger]

I suppose there was also another homeschooled kid that was sharp as a tack but very socially awkward

That's pretty common, I think.

[Rothman]

I suppose there was also another homeschooled kid that was sharp as a tack but very socially awkward

That's pretty common, I think.

But not to the point where one can generalize about homeschool outcomes.

[kphoger]

But not to the point where one can generalize about homeschool outcomes.

Just enough to make jokes about, but not enough to where the homeschoolers within earshot don't get offended.  (Ask me how I know.)

[I-57/Route 66 Fan]

IMHO Baseball Is The Only Sport That Makes White Uniforms Look Good

[Scott5114]

I don't generalize when it comes to homeschooling.  I've seen kids come out of it ready for the world faster than those in public education and kids come out of it totally screwed up by it.  All depends on the skills, expertise and devotion of the parents in the instances I've witnessed. 

Which is really the crux of the matter. Some people make really great teachers. Others are terrible at it. In public school, at least the teachers should have some degree of training in being a teacher, baseline standards they are expected to uphold, and usually some amount of experience in teaching others. With homeschooling, you are basically saying you're such an awesome teacher you can do a better job than the professionals. Now, some people might be entirely right...but how many of them have fallen victim to Dunning-Kruger and are totally wrong that they can do a better job?

Personally, I didn't get whole lot out of public school, but I doubt that I would have turned out any better homeschooled. I didn't realize until I grew up that my dad has a really annoying teaching style where he just puts information out there and expects you to make connections between it all—which, if you are new to the material, is a lot harder to do than if you're a subject-matter expert—and then he makes you feel dumb for not making the connections. So I don't think I would have learned any more if he had taught me. What I really needed was a better school—and part of the reason I didn't get much out of mine was because it was so preoccupied with sports that they spent all their money on sports coaches and had them teach history or government or whatever on the side.

Hey, look, we looped back around to the topic!

[Scott5114]

IMHO Baseball Is The Only Sport That Makes White Uniforms Look Good

Personally, I think the only time they should use white uniforms are when two teams are playing who use the same primary color, like if two teams who usually wear red play each other. If a red team plays a blue team then they should both get to wear their colored uniform. (I guess you could make an argument that if, say, red plays green then one team should wear white because of colorblindness.)

This could have the side benefit of incentivizing picking unusual uniform colors. We could use more teams choosing colors other than red, blue, and sometimes green and yellow. Need more purples, oranges, teals, and things like that.