character and metrics

From Slate, interesting movement afoot (with similar tactics to the grade the parents initiative) to shift the focus of children's sports from win-or-nothing into character building:

My job is to see to it that report cards get handed out to the referee and to the opposing team's TSL before each game and that they get filled out by the end of it. Each of us rates the behavior of the players, coaches, and parents on both sides, from "excellent" to "unacceptable."
...I'm not sure what's more surprising, that my kids are total converts to the cause or that I've bought into the program...

Like they say in business school, if you're going to improve a process the first thing you need to do is to find a way to measure it.

The article also mentions that they aim for a "5:1 ratio of praise to blame", which got me thinking of who I like to pound on in this space, and of how easy it is to sit on one's butt when all is satisfactory and only scream and throw things when you have a complaint. Which leads to the poor recipient getting nothing but abuse. So here are 5 things I've been impressed with recently in The Union:

• Doug Mattson, who is to The Union as Tom Knudson is to The Bee. Both produce very well written, solid, factual, clear reporting about stuff we need to face up to. For examples, Mattson today on mitigation fees and traffic upgrades (also see his previously-linked-to growth issues piece), Knudsen's series (with others) on California, the State of Denial (how we protect our back yard from exploitation, instead feeding our desires via rape and pillage of the natural resources of other countries.)
  
• Richard Somerville's column from Saturday on how the editorial section is structured, clarifying the ground rules as it were. Clarity/visibility/facts good. Other stuff good too: "On a regular basis, we run columns by Molly Ivins from the left, Cal Thomas from the right, and Dave Barry from Mars."
  
• The Union's willingness (on the Katis matter) to do an about face in their editorial and say "we've changed our minds".
  
• Katie Walsh's Reflections of a woman in black today on the varieties of reception she and the other 25 women got while standing vigil on the Nevada City overpass, some of which [varieties of reception] bring to mind this comment from right-winger Tacitus:

  it's easy to note that some of the most ideologically committed are also the ones most apt to savagely dehumanize their foes. When your political leanings skew your moral compass such that common decency no longer applies, it's time to step back.

• Jeff Ackerman's comment celebrating hicks, in his column today: "A hick would have the courage to leave his name and phone number on my machine."
  
  Also this bit:

  And then there was the time I ruined a planned tour of a brothel by Nevada lawmakers. That one got national attention. A dozen or so legislators were preparing a "fact finding" tour of the Mustang Ranch and I penned a little column suggesting that "except for the degree of pleasure they provide, the prostitutes and politicians might actually have lots in common."

Nice work, guys.