I just finished reading Shawn Miller’s second attempt to legitimize professional sports. He asked: “Are Americans simply dumb and uneducated?” His answer is “no”; we merely place more importance on sports figures than on teachers, artists, etc.

I think my answer to his question is a resounding “yes,” and I think my No. 1 piece of evidence for this is the point Mr. Miller made about how more people can identify sports “heroes” than social workers.

How many Americans vote? How many know where Kosovo is? Aren’t our students falling behind every other industrialized nation in math and science?

I wonder if it’s because they spend too much time watching sports on TV?

What do these athletes really provide? Entertainment? So do violence, porn and Beavis and Butthead, and we know what watching that does to kids. Role models? Even Mike Tyson?

The nation fell in love with Darryl Strawberry during his fight with colon cancer. Didn’t he just get picked up for possession of cocaine?

Professional sports are money makers. End of story.

I don’t have data to support this, but I’d be willing to bet that sports fanaticism varies inversely with education.

That means the more you’re into sports, the dumber you are.

---

Chris Choukalas

Graduate student

Psychology