I've always wondered how on earth Dennis Hastert became Speaker of the House of Representatives. He isn't very bright and he has all the charisma of a pine tree. Along comes Charles Oliver, writing in Reason magazine, to explain it all as basically dumb luck. He was only elected to the Illinois state house because the opponent that beat him out in the primary had a stroke and he got the seat by default. 6 years later, he was picked to fill a US House seat when the sitting Republican congressman went into a coma. And 12 years later, he was elected Speaker of the House in the aftermath of sex scandals involving his predecessors, Newt Gingrich and Bob Livingston. As Oliver puts it, "He just doesn't seem to have considered the possibility that his peers elected him because they considered him the House Republican least likely to be having sex." Ouch.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. Those who can't teach, coach. And those who can't coach become speaker of the House of Representatives.OK, that's a bit unfair to Dennis "Denny" Hastert. In Speaker: Lessons From Forty Years in Coaching and Politics, he tells us that in his 16 years coaching high school wrestling, he produced one state championship team and almost a dozen individual state champions and was once named state coach of the year in Illinois. That's not a bad record. Then again, Lou Albano managed 18 world tag team wrestling champions, two intercontinental champions, and one world wrestling champion in the WWWF (later WWF and WWE). And no one seems to be seeking his political leadership.
Double ouch. But anyone who has had to take a high school class from one of the school's sports coaches can probably relate. There were two required classes at my high school for seniors, government and economics. One was taught by the basketball coach, the other by the baseball coach. Let's just say we watched a lot of filmstrips because neither of these two halfwits knew a damn thing about the subject they were teaching. Hastert makes me positively yearn for the days of Newt Gingrich. For all his obvious faults, Gingrich at least loved ideas and had the ability to understand them.
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Oddly enough, my father was a high school basketball coach who also taught... government and economics (and also history). I think though that he was a pretty good teacher (i had him for American History-- no filmstrips). He was teacher of the year a couple of times and he pioneered the use of computers in his economics classes.
Now, the football coach... that's another story :-)
A little hard on the teachers/coaches? Get cut? I will agree somewhat on the idea that SOME coaches make bad teachers. One of the best history teachers I had (high school and college) was the baseball coach. He did a great job of making the class interesting for everyone, not just those that liked history. He was one of those "must have" teachers, everyone wanted to be in his class. As for leadership ability good coaches, as well as good teachers, have to have it to be successfull. Coaching is not an easy thing, getting teenage boys to do what you want them to do is hard. Hastert may be lame, but don't make the mistake of painting everyone with the same brush.
I will agree somewhat on the idea that SOME coaches make bad teachers.
Oh, I have no doubt that there are some high school sports coaches who are very good teachers as well. But let's face it, in a lot of school districts where sports is important and coaches have to be on staff, they throw them in to teach classes when they aren't prepared for it (and I went to what was allegedly a very good public school system where that happened). And I imagine that the people who would be most annoyed by it are those coaches who really are good teachers. And believe me, these guys were really, really bad. I had to explain to the econ teacher what an econometric formula was.
Lou Albano was a captain. That kind of military experience gives him the gravitas on foreign policy matters which Hastert lacks.
Lou Albano was a captain. That kind of military experience gives him the gravitas on foreign policy matters which Hastert lacks.
And while we're at it, Sergeant Slaughter for Secretary of State!!!
I recall chuckling about Hastert's selection of Speaker at the time. It was clear that he was selected because he was a relative non-entity. Recall that Hastert's selection came after Gingrich left the speakership and Livingston's hasty retreat (which has never been fully explained, although it is suspected it was because of numerous sexual peccadillos). It was also after the sexual revelations regarding Henry Hyde and Helen "Homewrecker" Chenowith, the latter being a right-wing Christian moralist. The right-wing Republican moralists were in a bit of disarray and needed a front man as Speaker that was a relative non-entity. And Hastert fit the bill.
Why wasn't DeLay selected to be Speaker? Because he could wield more power as majority leader than he ever could as Speaker.
Your comments about Hastert are justified. Why make invidious comments about all coaches? In my kids' HS, many of the coaches are teachers in the math dept., and it is the best math dept. in the district and perhaps the entire SF Bay Area. They use some of the same motivational techniques used in sports to motivate kids in math (at the end of the year there is an awards night where big honking trophies are given out, e.g.). P.S. I am not a sports lover. I just don't see the point in perpetuating stereotypes.
Why make invidious comments about all coaches? In my kids' HS, many of the coaches are teachers in the math dept., and it is the best math dept. in the district and perhaps the entire SF Bay Area. They use some of the same motivational techniques used in sports to motivate kids in math (at the end of the year there is an awards night where big honking trophies are given out, e.g.). P.S. I am not a sports lover. I just don't see the point in perpetuating stereotypes.
I didn't make invidious comments about all coaches; I made invidious comments about coaches who can't teach but are nonetheless allowed to do so. Obviously that doesn't apply to all coaches because obviously there are some people who can be both good coaches and good teachers. But I never had any and in talking to others about it they usually react with a chuckle of recognition when I tell them that we mostly watched filmstrips in those classes because the coaches couldn't actually teach it.
For crying out loud, are we now so overly sensitive that we have to gripe about invidious stereotypes of sports coaches? Is that now a protected minority fighting bravely against oppression? The root of much humor, perhaps even most, lies in observational stereotypes that are often, but obviously not always, correct. When we joke about Baptists being against sex standing up because it might lead to dancing, we are engaging in the stereotype that Baptists are against dancing. But I doubt anyone would bother to post a comment saying, "My cousin is Baptist and he likes to dance. I don't see why you perpetuate such stereotypes."