Who taught: Steve, Jean, Jeremy and Ginny

A good sport (source: http://candostreet.com/)

This is the second episode where I learned a new expression from Steve and Jean. They have three children and two of them, Ginny and Jeremy, teach at the same elementary school. They were in a skit whose main purpose was to increase awareness of the importance of the yearly State Math test. It is pretty hilarious. I wish I can show it to you. In the skit, they were basically devouring chocolates that are supposed to be for students who would get good scores in the test. That is not good. 🙂 In the skit, their mouth was totally covered with chocolates while eating chocolates and the other teachers were telling them the chocolates are not for them but for good(?) students.

In the end, one teacher said, “Do you know that the school will give out chocolates if a student would get a good score in the State Math test.” That would work for elementary school students, I guess. Chocolates could be really good baits for them to study harder.

So, what does it have anything to do with sport?

What does sport mean? That’s easy. It is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others.”

Am I suggesting that eating chocolates requires physical exertion and skill and Ginny and Jeremy were competing with each other? Hmm.. it needs some skill to eat and mouth muscle should move faster. And, who knows.. Ginny and Jeremy were really competing with each other. 🙂

As we were watching the skit, Steve said, “They were being a good sport.” Interesting! Very very interesting! Because this does not mean that there is any sort of competition. The thing they did was that they were being funny in front of students and teachers, right? In other words, they were fine being the butt of a joke. Well, that is what “good sport” means.

After all, it has something to do with sport (physical exertion). When you lose in any sport, it is not easy to accept your loss. But, if you can accept your loss, then you are being a good sport.

It is hard to accept a loss in any sport. It is also very hard to be a butt of a joke, amusing other people. There goes a strong connection of being a good sport.

Amazingly, a few days later, I heard the same expression used by an actor of the Criminal Minds. He said, “I was just being a good sport.”

Can you be a good sport? Hope you can in both sense!