We didn't get any good pictures of Miss Becca's performances at the recent meet in Fayetteville due to a camera (or user--which would be my wife) malfunction. But we have some good pics of Becca practicing her various routines, of which this is one.
Daddy's little girl; ol' cucumber head, as in "cool as a cucumber." ;-)
(Update: In connection with Hermes's entry, be sure to read the VFR entry on the subject, and particularly Mark J's comments.)
Over at Wise Man's Heart, Hermes has [finally! ;)] put up another great post. I recommend that you go read it, as well as the lengthy comments he's gotten to the post. All of it is good. Some of it is a little more negative than my personal attitude generally will abide, but it's all good, as I said, and well worth the read.
But I'd like to focus my attention on one aspect Hermes brings out in the post, and to ask Hermes (or anyone else who has the answer) one of those politically incorrect questions that many of us seem to shy away from asking...
First of all, let me say that I do admit a little disappointment at going to Hermes's blog and finding that no new entry has been added in awhile. But why? Because of the quality of his posts. In other words, Hermes, I'm learning quickly that the quality of your posts makes it well worth my while to check your blog for new entries on a regular basis.
Now, I have to ask the politically incorrect question. Hermes mentions that he and his fellow medical students were required to take an IQ exam prior to being admitted to medical school. The question is this: Do you know whether the standards with regard to the IQ exam are different concerning "minorities?" For instance, when I was in the Air Force years ago, I learned from two female co-workers (an African American, and a Cuban American) that the grade requirements for acceptance into officer's training school were lower for them than they were for me, based, of course, on their minority status.
This knowledge precipitated a heated exchange between myself and the ladies mentioned wherein the bottom of their argument was that this policy was acceptable because they didn't have the same educational opportunities that I had growing up. My response to this nonsense was simply this: If you think I had more "educational" opportunities than you had growing up, you are sadly mistaken and deluded. Indeed, and as I further argued, what they were saying in actuality was that it was they, not I, who had more educational advantages given them (not earned), and those perceived advantages for them would follow them around for the rest of their lives. But the higher point was that by lowering the standards for entry into officer's training school, this could do nothing but lower the overall quality of the leadership of the U.S. Military, which, of course, results in a sub-par military; at very least a sub-par officer corps.
Now, I don't recall whether the conversation ever got around to discovering whether this disparity in standards (one reason for this is because the conversation got cut short when accusations of bigotry and racism were carelessly cast about concerning another co-worker who was arguing the same points I was, just a little more forcefully, and who was called before the commander who ultimately determined that there would be no more talk of different standards applying to different groups) applied to different groups carried over into the actual grading of achievement once a minority applicant was actually admitted by a lower standard, but it seems to me that to be consistent in the lowering of such standards, that this would have to be the case, or the final outcome.
So once again, the question is this: Do any of you know whether different IQ requirements, and/or, different grading standards are applied within the medical field to applicants and students enjoying "minority" status? Quality in the medical field is superior to quantity of minority applicants accepted. And you can quote me on that.
As I recently explained to my gymnast daughter (who has shown a capacity for making most of the requirements of the next level, albeit somewhat inconsistently at this point), who wants to advance to the next level so badly she can taste it, and has expressed that she hopes her instructors will move her up: "Your instructors don't determine when you advance; you determine when you advance, and don't you ever forget it." The point being this, that irregardless of what she achieves or doesn't achieve in gymnastics or anything else, I don't want her ever thinking her achievements based in anything other than a combination of God-given talents and hard work on her part in developing those talents. I certainly will never encourage such an attitude in any of my children. And those of you that do, or will, should be ashamed of yourselves! And you can quote me on that as well.
Just a quick (yet significant) entry to congratulate our very own Miss Becca for having made another advancement in the world of gymnastics. Miss Becca is my ten year old daughter who somehow talked me into letting her take on another activity (tumbling classes) some time back. She's quite an athletic little girl, and quite persuasive too (y'all know what I mean dads).
My brothers over at the AFB have been kept up to date with Miss Becca's rapid gymnastics advancements over the last year or so. What they don't know about is that due to my good friend's lengthy hospitalization (about four months), and the necessity of our seeing to his care during this time, we made the decision to temporarily suspend Miss Becca's gymnastics pursuits for the higher purpose. We didn't know, of course, that our friends' serious illness and hospital stay was going to last so long, but we finally determined to suspend Miss Becca's gymnastics puruits indefinately, until all was resolved with our friend.
I can happily report that our friend is indeed out of the hospital and doing much better now. Once he was finally released and everything looked like it was going to be ok, my wife and I started to plan for when we'd enroll Miss Becca back in gymnastics classes. It was decided between us that the fall session would be the date to shoot for. And it just so happens that the fall session is now beginning.
Also, we've been looking for a closer gymnastics academy than the one she's been attending, given that that one is 90 miles away. We found one closer to home that, though it hasn't the reputation throughout the USAG gymnastics world that the other one does, nonetheless has a fine reputation in this State for producing very good gymnasts. So we decided to give it a try.
Tonight was Miss Becca's tryout at the new place, and I'm happy to inform you that she did exceptionally well, despite about a six month layoff, and was acutally advanced to the next level of competitive gymnastics.
Nice show, Becca! USAG, here we come!
-DW
