{"id":2260,"date":"2015-06-25T11:53:42","date_gmt":"2015-06-25T17:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=2260"},"modified":"2015-06-25T11:53:42","modified_gmt":"2015-06-25T17:53:42","slug":"in-other-news-when-does-the-pursuit-of-fairness-go-too-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/in-other-news-when-does-the-pursuit-of-fairness-go-too-far.html","title":{"rendered":"In other news. . . when does the pursuit of “fairness” go too far?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Here\u2019s a non-Obamacare, non-flag news item: \u00a0the Illinois High School Association, which runs high school athletics, has now agreed, in a settlement with the attorney general, to open up athletic competition to disabled athletes, in a more comprehensive and integrated fashion. \u00a0Here\u2019s the Tribune article<\/a>, and a press release<\/a>, and here are the key paragraphs from the Tribune:<\/p>\n

The settlement . . . establishes dual championships in swimming and track \u2014 one that does not count the results of athletes with disabilities, and one that does. . . .<\/p>\n

The settlement also calls for the IHSA to establish a 5K road race, starting in 2016, that will have a wheelchair division and an open division. The IHSA is supposed to find accommodations for athletes in other sports, which Hickman said has been the organization\u2019s longtime practice. . . .<\/p>\n

The number of points a team can earn from a disabled athlete\u2019s result goes up with the number of athletes who are competing. According to a table accompanying the settlement, a first place swimming finish between two competitors is worth three points, while first place is worth 16 points if 12 athletes take part.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the face of it, this is great news for disabled athletes. \u00a0But:<\/p>\n

The reality is that there are very few disabled athletes, and within the category of \u201cdisabled-athlete competitions\u201d I would guess* that, if two such competitors face off, there\u2019s likely to be a significant imbalance not due to athletic ability but degree of disability, which means that competition results are likely to be skewed, and it\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess as to whether anyone will consider the \u201calternate championship\u201d as a \u201creal\u201d victory.<\/p>\n

(* Yeah, I would guess that if someone did a word cloud for this blog, \u201cI would guess\u201d or \u201cI would imagine\u201d would appear frequently. \u00a0Someday I\u2019ll early retire from my day job, or get that dream alternate job offer and have the time to do more research on the topics that particularly interest me, but I\u2019m not there yet.)<\/p>\n

It also raises the question of the point of high school athletic competitions, and teams, and eliminations, in the first place. \u00a0Look, I know this sounds cynical and unserious to say, but if the kids who have an identified, tangible disability like, say, the lack of a limb, get their own, equally recognized competition, what about the kids who get cut from teams because of a basic lack of athletic ability? \u00a0Call it \u201clow muscle tone\u201d to give it a label \u2014 which applies to a significant degree to kids with Down Syndrome, \u00a0and to a lesser, more ordinary way, to plenty of other kids (like my own). \u00a0Or hand-eye coordination, or gross or fine motor skills \u2014 which pair up with lots of disabilities, such as Autism-spectrum issues.<\/p>\n

Of course, I\u2019d rather the German system in which physical education is there, but athletic competitions are separate from the school environment entirely, so this is just offered up for discussion.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a non-Obamacare, non-flag news item: \u00a0the Illinois High School Association, which runs high school athletics, has now agreed, in a settlement with the attorney general, to open up athletic competition to disabled athletes, in a more comprehensive and integrated fashion. \u00a0Here\u2019s the Tribune article, and a press release, and here are the key paragraphs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIn other news. . . when does the pursuit of "fairness" go too far?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here's a non-Obamacare, non-flag news item: \u00a0the Illinois High School Association, which runs high school athletics, has now agreed, in a settlement with\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/in-other-news-when-does-the-pursuit-of-fairness-go-too-far.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In other news. . . when does the pursuit of "fairness" go too far?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here's a non-Obamacare, non-flag news item: \u00a0the Illinois High School Association, which runs high school athletics, has now agreed, in a settlement with\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/in-other-news-when-does-the-pursuit-of-fairness-go-too-far.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-06-25T17:53:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/in-other-news-when-does-the-pursuit-of-fairness-go-too-far.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/in-other-news-when-does-the-pursuit-of-fairness-go-too-far.html\",\"name\":\"In other news. . . when does the pursuit of \\\"fairness\\\" go too far?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-25T17:53:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-25T17:53:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"Here's a non-Obamacare, non-flag news item: \u00a0the Illinois High School Association, which runs high school athletics, has now agreed, in a settlement with\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/in-other-news-when-does-the-pursuit-of-fairness-go-too-far.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/in-other-news-when-does-the-pursuit-of-fairness-go-too-far.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/in-other-news-when-does-the-pursuit-of-fairness-go-too-far.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"In other news. . . when does the pursuit of “fairness” go too far?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"In other news. . . when does the pursuit of \"fairness\" go too far?","description":"Here's a non-Obamacare, non-flag news item: \u00a0the Illinois High School Association, which runs high school athletics, has now agreed, in a settlement with","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/in-other-news-when-does-the-pursuit-of-fairness-go-too-far.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"In other news. . . when does the pursuit of \"fairness\" go too far?","og_description":"Here's a non-Obamacare, non-flag news item: \u00a0the Illinois High School Association, which runs high school athletics, has now agreed, in a settlement with","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/in-other-news-when-does-the-pursuit-of-fairness-go-too-far.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2015-06-25T17:53:42+00:00","author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/in-other-news-when-does-the-pursuit-of-fairness-go-too-far.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/in-other-news-when-does-the-pursuit-of-fairness-go-too-far.html","name":"In other news. . . when does the pursuit of \"fairness\" go too far?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-06-25T17:53:42+00:00","dateModified":"2015-06-25T17:53:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"Here's a non-Obamacare, non-flag news item: \u00a0the Illinois High School Association, which runs high school athletics, has now agreed, in a settlement with","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/in-other-news-when-does-the-pursuit-of-fairness-go-too-far.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/in-other-news-when-does-the-pursuit-of-fairness-go-too-far.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/06\/in-other-news-when-does-the-pursuit-of-fairness-go-too-far.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"In other news. . . when does the pursuit of “fairness” go too far?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}