Giving Kids The Same Support We Give Athletes

There's a delicious email exchange about sports, politics, and Canadian health care between New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell and ESPN's Sports Guy that at one point highlights the discrepancy between how many chances sports fans are willing to give under-achieving athletes and how many chances society is willing to give other types of underachievers. Writes Gladwell:

"But one of the fascinating things about sports, it seems to me, is that when it comes the way we think about professional athletes, we're all liberals (without meaning to be, of course). We give people lots of chances. (Think Jeff George). We go to extraordinary lengths to help players reach their potential. We're forgiving of mistakes....It would be nice if we were as generous and as patient with the rest of society's underachievers."