Recently while traveling through airports in America I was struck by the “Headline News” that seem to be a fixation for much of the news media, and presumably the nation, about a recent parochial school graduate who has excelled as an “Indoor Gladiator.” It seemed that he was about to pick a coliseum to “Play” in and the entire media was in a frenzy about where this might be! There has been no mention of the academic skills of this “Gladiator.”

I wondered if this might have been the case in Roman times when coliseum games were the “major leagues.” As I recall these games were taking place at a time when a certain other group, Barbarians, whose focus was on “Burning and Pillaging” were approaching major coliseums with the idea of applying their skills.

I think that this analogy has some merit. Here in Federal Way schools we were fortunate enough to have many kids who were invited to the join the major leagues, but I saw no notice of these invitations in the local paper! Many had to make some very difficult decisions that would have some very long term effects.

However on the sports pages I saw many stories about Federal Way students who were accepted into some of the ‘Brush Leagues” for their “Gladiator Skills!” In fact we have a long series of articles in our local papers about the success in the Bush leagues and almost nary a mention of the successes that our students are having in the “Major Leagues of Knowledge” instead of the “Bush leagues of Gladiators!”

Why is it that when a student has to make a choice between attending Harvard and Stanford this isn’t big news? Isn’t this far more of a success story than signing to “play” in a coliseum in Boise or Eugene?

In Massachusetts a local school district has to eliminate some freshman sports due to the voters rejecting a levy. Some of the parents, and coaches, of this “Early Gladiator” activity have offered to fund these quasi-educational activities and the Superintendent, wisely in my mind, has said that unless the parents, or community, is prepared to fund the other cuts in academics that were also required, their contributions should not be accepted. The parents and coaches are concerned that if these programs are eliminated the success of the varsity teams will be limited! I would ask, “In which league?” If it is the “Knowledge League” I think it would be hard to defend this. If it is the “Bush League,” that’s probably where “Casey” stuck out, they may be right. It is more important that Mudville make it in the Knowledge League or the Bush League. In Massachusetts I suspect that the Bush League may not have a high priority.

It’s Bush Leagues verses Major Leagues when it comes to education!

For those who follow the “Bush Leagues” and read this column, probably not too many are in this category, you need to know that the equivalent of the Barbarians to the Romans, are practicing the skills that they believe will pillage America. Does anyone reading this column, think that a discussion about freshman sports is taking place in any of the nations’ educational circles that have surpassed us in the “knowledge race?”

The falling of Rome, where Gladiator shows were of great importance, led to the Dark Ages where there was little civilized organization and little human progress. One only has to look at places in this world where the Knowledge League isn’t functioning to see situations that are very reminiscent of the Dark Ages. Africa, Afghanistan and some parts of American cities show some very striking similarities to what occurred in the Dark Ages.

Looking at the level of police enforcement at our coliseums we see that we may not be too far from a new Dark Age. Following some of the major events in our coliseums we have seen burning and pillaging in our cities.

Where does this start? Right here in towns like Federal Way where adults seem to find that Gladiation trumps knowledge!

The true “Goths” are approaching!