Sunday, January 04, 2009

Fin de Siecle

The peaceful end of an empire is seldom told in the news pages of the media. You can see the end coming in the sports, leisure or entertainment sections.

Take, for example, the sports section of today's NY Times. A featured story is about kids in the seventh and eighth grade who are good at sports. One of them, Reeve Koehler, is 13 and already stands 6'3" and weighs 280 pounds. He has been too big to play football with kids his own age. Yet, the University of Hawaii has already offered him a full scholarship.

The story is mainly about the Football Youth All-American Bowl, which is a new series for kids in the seventh and eighth grades. They will play three games at San Antonio. One indication of the educational prowess of the organizers is this quote from the director, "Imagine if you could have saw Reggie Bush when he was in eighth grade or seventh grade and see how he develops."

Shouldn't kids be kids? Does the University of Hawaii have criteria for incoming students beyond football talent?

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