We ask parents to encourage their child, cheering them on by acknowledging their skills, (
i.e. nice pass, nice shot, nice turn, good try).
It is hard to raise sufficient polemical steam over what many may consider a
nice distinction, but Peter J. Leithart's «For Useless Learning» (November 2000) embodies such a peculiarly evangelical (
i.e., skewed) approach to the arts and learning that I could not let it
pass without comment.