Letters To the Editor

To the Editor:

In an age when the inability to report to work on time may be declared "chronic tardy syndrome" and documented cases of "motivational-deficit disorder" are diagnosed as the cause for students not wanting to perform any educational tasks except playing Nintendo, Henry F. Cotton submits "athletic-proliferation anxiety" (let's call it APA) as the obvious, though heretofore neglected, root of education decline ("Neglecting the Obvious," Commentary, Dec. 13, 1995).

The malignancy now identified will doubtless spawn a flood of social psychologists and educational consultants to the scenes of in-service meetings. Armed with color markers and newsprint attached to official easels once used to promote mastery learning, they will set goals, form committees, and demonstrate beyond a shadow of disbelief that APA is, as Mr. Cotton purports, the single largest impediment to educational improvement in the American school system. Theodore Sizer will recognize his oversight and recommend discussions of the anomaly. A revision of A Nation at Risk will reflect the new point of view, giving credit where credit is due. No one will listen to...