Smarty vs Sporty ? — don't play that game

I'm still bad at sports, but my childhood disdain for them was just misplaced ego.

There's a student in one of my seventh grade English classes who the other teachers don't like.  She is definitely obstinate, and she's always hunched over her desk, doodling or zoning out.  From the way she consistently squints at the board and her tablet, I suspect she just has an undiagnosed vision problem (and yes, I have mentioned this to the other staff).

Today, while another class was writing something, I briefly looked out the window.  There she was, happily running, jumping, and playing tennis below.  I didn't watch long enough to tell if she is good at it or not (and I'm so bad at sports I wouldn't know anyway), but I was deeply satisfied to see her so smiling and activated.  I was just happy to see that her school life wasn't only the drudgery she experiences in English classes...

I've been teaching ESL and special education for 25 years, and there are no students I don't like.  except maybe the two bullies I have encountered, and even then, they had their own problems and were just frustratingly beyond my reach...

But this isn't actually about that.

Except for math, which I am truly terrible at, I have always been a very smart, clever, and capable student.  On the other hand, I have always been completely inept at sports.  In my early 30s I somehow managed to become a somewhat accomplished rapier & dagger fencer (probably through sheer force of fantasy-nerd-will).  But if you put a ball in my hand or some teammates around me expecting me to run, jump, or catch something, it's all going to go quite badly.  and it always has.  So I always thought intelligence and academic learning were far superior and more important than playing sports.  And I think a lot of people think this way.  Certainly most teachers do.

And I'm not really going to argue this point.  Intelligence and academic ability are clearly valuable in societies so heavily augmented by technologies and organizing principles.  But physical (and emotional and intuitive) ability is still also valuable, and it still also brings people happiness and fulfillment.  So, I was wrong to consider the thing I was better at to be the better thing.

I don't think that way anymore.  While I do hope that student can be helped to get more out of her classtime, I think it's perfectly fine if she just gets by and focuses her life energy on playing sports or whatever she can feel fulfilled and successful in doing.  There's plenty of space in society for her to do so.

Finally, what I really want to bring out is this:
It is quite natural and positive to have some pride in your abilities and feel like the things you are good at are valuable.  But it is a mistake to believe that the thing you are superior in is also above all other things.  This warps your sense of value across society, leading to inequalities, imbalances, and unnecessary tensions.

We are truly blessed to be living in societies where each individual doesn't have to have the responsibility of doing all the things.  It leaves a lot of room for freedom of expanding in the things we are personally interested in.

So just enjoy the possibility that you can find a role in society that you find fulfilling to you.  And appreciate that there are plenty of other roles that people can fill that are fulfilling to them in their own ways.
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And leave it at that.