The Ceiling of Excellence

Last Friday evening I watched an interview with musician Ted Nugent on The Glenn Beck Show. Among the topics that The Nuge waxed philosophical about was something he called the "ceiling of excellence". This is akin to the mercy rule whereby someone is penalized for performing well.

The Motor City Madman provided examples, both actual and theoretical, to make his point. An actual example is the recent case of a 9 year old boy in Connecticut who was told by officials of the local little league that he couldn't pitch any longer because they said he was too good and he would frighten the other players that he played against.

I was witness to the ceiling of excellence this past Saturday. My son played his first soccer game of the season. His team got off to a fast start and scored a few quick goals. There is one boy on the team that is especially good. When he scored his 3rd goal of the game he had to come out of the game for a time because of a league rule. Also, the team had to be short a player because they were winning by several goals. Well, they continued to score even though they were shorthanded. After each successive goal they had to be short one more player until it was 6 players for the other team against 3 players for my son's team. This caused some consternation because the players on my son's team had to wait longer to get back in the game while the other team's players got much more playing time.

What is gained by this? Who benefits? What example is being set? In my opinion, much more is lost than gained and no one wins. Someone is penalized for doing well. They are basically being told that there is a limit to what you are allowed to achieve.

Artificially leveling the playing field because you believe it is helping a child's psyche can actually do the reverse. You give those that are underachieving a false sense of achievement. They won't set realistic goals and when they encounter a situation where the playing field has not been adjusted to accommodate them, they will surely fail. As for those that overachieve, they are discouraged from progressing and doing even better.

This is classic socialist ideology. This fallacy that we are all the same. This lie is perpetuated by left-leaning ideologues. We see it every day in racial and gender quotas at colleges and universities and through affirmative action. It is the very definition of a nanny state.

What if these same standards were applied to someone like Thomas Edison? Or how about the Wright brothers? Or Jonas Salk? Where would this country be?

Parents, teacher, coaches - they all have the sacred responsibility to nurture and encourage achievement. But no one, not even the state, can guarantee it.