Jocks really exist?! (Re: Math -- What Is It Good For?)

[naamagatus]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "macloudt" <macloudt at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., Andrew MacIan <andrew_macian at y...> wrote:
> > Greetings from Andrew!
> > Seriously, the students that actually showed for the
> > two sections that I have this term (penance for some
> > really wretched karma, no doubt, but I'll be blessed
> > if I know what) turned out to be about half
> > mouth-breathing 'athaletes' and the rest folks who
> > need the class for BusAdmin or whatever.  The latter I
> > can teach; the rest might pass....somehow.
> 
> Egad!  Even *I* performed better in math classes than the knuckle-
> dragging athletes who needed to pass in order to stay on the football 
> team!  One year in high school the football manager was my math 
> teacher, and no one was surprised when Billy Quarterback, who would 
> have signed his name with an X if he'd been able to make the lines 
> cross each other, managed to pass the class *just* at the grade so he 
> could stay on the team. Hmmm...
> 

I have to say, as a non American who sees a LOT of American TV shows, that this whole 
ontological division of school/college society into jocks-cheerleaders-geeks-.. (what other 
sections are there?) is beyond weird. Maybe because I've only seen it on TV (Beverly Hills 
and such like) it never seemed to me that it could be real. It has an almost mythical tang 
to it. Which is why I'm fascinated now, when real people refer to it as part of their real 
life. 

Is it the same in Britain, by the way? Or in other countries? I can definitely rule out 
Israel, in any case. The "athletes=dullards" equation isn't invoked here. Also, there are 
no cheerleaders (not as a social class, at least) and I don't think that there's such a 
clear geek stereotype in Israeli teen society. 

It might be fun to formulate a thesis about the replacement of the old social-economic 
classes (which America was so anxious to abolish 200 years ago) with these different, yet 
no less rigid, social divisions. Any bids?


Naama