In the article "In Schools Where Sports May Be Most Vital, New York City Offers Least Help", Jim Dwyer shares the efforts of a few New York educators trying to maintain sports leagues in public schools. Dwyer begins by introducing the International Community High School baseball coach, Stanley Hernandez. Hernandez and his team are part of the Small Schools Athletic League that was created around 3 years ago and has a minimal budget receiving no money from the Educational Department. This program was created when a number of schools were no longer founded by the Public Schools Athletic League, P.S.A.L., taking away sports and smaller schools near the city."Out of 480 high schools, 67 have no P.S.A.L. teams; 100 have fewer than six." Coincidentally those 67 schools that have no P.S.A.L funded sports teams have higher minority admissions than the other 400 in which are largely populated by white students. Dwyer then quotes Mr.Garcia-Rosen, history teacher and dean at International, "People come in with second- grade reading levels in their own language, and zero in English. So they are not graduating in four years. That's when it's crucial that they have sports." At this point Dwyer asserts his main point, kids need sports. It is a relief activity that helps students get through the day. It's what keeps them motivated during school.
The motivation of sports is what relates this article to Big Mouth and Ugly Girl. In the novel Ursula Riggs, the girls basketball team star player, is motivated by basketball. The little confidence Ursula has comes from basketball. In the hallways, in the classroom, in emails, Ursula refers to herself as Ugly Girl, the name clearly giving away herself perception. However on the basketball ball court it's a different story. She has loads of confidence believing she carries the team, believing her awkwardness isn't present on the court; she's a different person. After Ursula has her major down fall in the Rocky River game and she quits the team her confidence is drained. She won't talk to any of the teams other members, her coach, or even Matt, except for over email. Now Ursula's problem is a little different than the one present in the article however they have the same outcome; confidence and self perception. In the article kids are motivated by sports knowing it's where they excel, and when they don't have those opportunities the interest level and confidence of knowledge lowers, just like Ursula's after she quits the basketball team. Although sports aren't everybody's outlet, it happens to be Ursula's and the students of International Community High School.
Conley, Chip. "Measuring What Makes Life Worthwhile." Chip Conley:. N.p., Feb. 2010. Web. 02 June 2014.
"Measuring what makes life worthwhile" a lecture given by Chip Conley revolves around a immigrant from Vietnam and the country of Bhutan. Conley is a business owner and met Vivian Quach, the Vietnam immigrant, when he bought a motel in the inner-city of San Francisco where Vivian worked as a maid. Vivian loved her job as a toilet cleaner and that was what intrigued Conley the most about her. However he soon came to found out it wasn't the cleaning she loved it was the emotional connection she made with the employees and customers that caused her to enjoy her job. Conley then uses the government of Bhutan, located in southern Asia, and describes how in the last two years the country has been converted to a democracy. The country was not converted from an absolute monarchy to a government by the people because the king didn't want to run the country but rather because it created better conditions for the country. Conley then shares a quote from his meeting with the Prime Minister of Bhutan, "Listen, Bhutan's goal is not to create happiness. We create conditions for happiness to occur. In other words, we create a habitat of happiness." This country stopped focusing on the GDP and tangible things and turned its attention to the intangible. After exposing the two very different scale situations, Conley joins the two together with the theme of happiness and then suggests how we incorporate it into our daily lives; by measuring the intangible rather than the tangible.
In Big Mouth and Ugly Girl Matt's family goes through the same type of issue but rather is focused on the tangible with the intangible. After Matt is accused of the bomb threat, taken from school for a few days, and then cleared to go back his parents decide to pursue a lawsuit for the troubles in which Matt has been wrongly accused of. Matt's parents believe the lawsuit, or in other words, money, is the only way to handle the situation and help Matt retaliate. However the lawsuit causes many people, including his close friends, to be rude to Matt and nearly shun him. This only affects Matt more making him realize he is unhappy and the pressure of the lawsuit is putting way to much weight on his shoulders. At the end of the book, after Ursula has talked some sense into Matt, he decides to tell his parents he wants to drop the lawsuit. Although his parents didn't agree at first Matt's parents dropped the lawsuit against the school because they realized it's what Matt wanted. It was what made him happy. After all charges were dropped people started talking to Matt again and things around school almost went back to normal. Once Matt's family stopped focusing on the tangible things, money, and realized the intangible, happiness, things turned around tremendously. Whether it be a motel, a school, or the government of the country, once we take a moment and step back to realize the base of all things, the intangible, we must just understand why we are content with them.