If I have read one piece repeating the proposition that Kentuckians care more about basketball than education, I have read 10,000. Frankly, I hope this is the last one.
For God's sake, why does everything have to be a zero-sum game, and why does basketball always get blamed for a perceived lack of commitment to education in Kentucky? It's as if the authors of articles like these think that Kentuckians would rather slavishly watch or talk about basketball than educate their children, and if this were true, it would indeed be a scandal.
But it isn't true, and in reality, it is a silly notion. Surely, college-educated individuals commenting on perceived problems within our education system can find something more worthy to blame -- politicos have blamed poor test scores on everything from lack of funding to not eating breakfast in the morning. Love of basketball has nothing -- repeat, nothing -- to do with test scores or hiring qualified people in important educational roles.
In fact, this whole basketball vs. education meme is targeted at women, who tend to be less likely to be sports fans. If I were a woman, I would be incensed that the authors using this comparison were in fact doing nothing more than trying to use sports as a wedge issue against the sexes, and think so little of women's intelligence that they figure they won't realize what is happening. It is is unworthy, idiotic, and I am sick to death of it.
I guess when a state is crazy for a sport, the fans of the sport get blamed for all manner of societal ills, and why not? Facile metaphors like this require almost no perspicacity -- just a keyboard. Never mind that it makes both the author (and the state, at least to the intellectually challenged) look foolish.
Hat tip: Kentucky Women blog.
