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Misspent Youth

November 18, 2010, 6:00 pm

My 16-year-old son is ranked 28th in the country in the ESPN fantasy football power rankings for 10-team leagues.  Wish he spent as much time on his calculus homework.

Tags: ,
Category: Sports
  • Paavo Ojala

    Gongrats.

    Is it a matter of incentives?

  • Orion

    How many hours per week does he spend doing that? Not so sure it's a good thing, but congratulations anyway. Success does breed success even of the manifestation seems odd at first.

  • Ryan

    I wish I had been allowed to take calculus at 16.

  • caseyboy

    No doubt academic achievement should be valued since it evidences intellectual curiosity as well as diligent effort. However, achieving athletically is also a worthy pursuit. Setting goals and working hard to achieve them, whether academic or athletic, evidences a quality of character that will pay dividends in life.

  • J W

    Fantasy football is one way you can make statistical modeling relevant to young men. It can also teach them its limitations.

  • DrTorch

    Is your son's hair as nice as Mel Kiper Jr's?

  • IgotBupkis, President, United Anarchist Society

    > I wish I had been allowed to take calculus at 16.

    You should have taught it to yourself then. The #%^#^#%^$& bastards tried to tell ME I couldn't take it, having taken all the pre-reqs in 10th grade and the summer school between 10 & 11 (I also happen to have skipped a grade, meaning I was 15) -- So I went to the public library and checked out a college textbook on the subject, and learned it on my own. $%&^$$% 'em. With a sharp pointed stick.

    The idea that you MUST have a teacher for a subject is just one more of the folderols foist on us by "Modern Public Edumacation".

    Here's a teacher, revealing, and not-so-subtly, the TRUE purpose of Public Schools.

  • Ryan

    > You should have taught it to yourself then.

    You are right about that. I listened way too much to people telling me I was just a kid and I wasn't as smart as I thought and you just have to sit in class for another 6 years before we let you do anything. (Of course I found out at 25 that one school wanted me to start skipping grades, but fortunately my father protected me from even the knowledge of that so that I could while away the next 9 years in crushing boredom socializing with kids my own age and my enthusiasm and work ethic slowly eroded)

  • Felix

    Ryan says "I wish I had been allowed to take calculus at 16".

    Huh? When I was 16, I just got a good textbook and taught myself.

    If a kid is interested in something, he'll go for it, be it calculus or fantasy football.