Not born with a silver spoon athletically, the only opening for me was traditional: Practice and hope for improvement. There was no immediate gratification; throughout 4th grade I was still in the top 5% on striking out. Occasionally, my father came home from work in time to throw strikes for me to swing at. I was an intentional spastic: The harder I tried the worse I got.
What I learned was that the pleasure from trying increased faster than the skill. I acquired confidence that I could have fun. Then the baseball started taking off on its own. If the rules had been changed to protect me from a period of unhappiness, natural athletes(4th grader’s dream) would have lost confidence and I would have not learned a lessons that boosted mine.
What is really lost when a society grows small and takes from the gifted fair credit for their home runs ? Confidence. Confidence in order, predictability, and fairness of the system encourages the gifted to excel and the rest of us to aspire and develop.
Handicaps may work in golf because you’re playing against the course. Do handicaps work in life? If government gave half the citizens a charitable handicap by requiring only the most productive to pay taxes would that undermine confidence or deter motivation?
Societies grow small when confidence declines. Governments cannot create level playing fields by making gifted play up hill and giving less gifted a down-hill run without undermining confidence. Without confidence no one invests and positive forms of deferred gratification (planning, practicing, and perfecting) decline.
After the 4th grade don’t throw a kid floaters or you’ll undermine his respect. Never, vote for a politician that promises to change rules to distribute handicaps.
David Griffith
Concerned Costal Voter
The Sea Ranch,CA
