Sports academies are the rage. They are in vogue. And future athletes, be they footballers or basket-ballers, join these special schools when they are young.
Because that is the philosophy of Practice Makes Perfect.
Indeed, talent scouts are shouting themselves hoarse while more than hawk-eyed while looking for ability for which they will pay top dollar to give their clubs glory and silverware.
Heard of Cameroonian basketball sensation Pascal Siakam, who plays for Toronto Raptors and the millions of shillings he takes home? Good money.
However, it is sad that there is hardly any special character academy in Kenya. Or they dot the country, but are yet to leave a mark.
Premium schools that specialise in sharpening talents that public or ordinary private schools only dream of are many.
At Grade Two, in Kenya, a parent marvels: ‘My first two sons are so good in football, but the younger one, now in Class Two, beats them all. He is destined for football glory’. The glow in his face is in tandem with what he is saying.
However, without the required character combination, the sports, engineering, journalism, nursing, teaching prowess comes to nought. Why are parents not spending a fortune on delivering people of good character?
Top music composers, inimitable guitarists – – some so skilled they play the instrument their backs to the crowd and other art notables have well paid managers who have to tell them how to behave, what to eat or say and when, how long to stay out with friends. That is character, acquired or trained.
It is indisputable that promising accountants, teachers, nurses… have dropped the ball when character fails them miserably. Veterans have also been humiliated when they look the other way at a time they were relied upon to steady the ship in environments requiring saviours like in corrupt societies.
Why? A big population of professionals (are they?) miss the character bus every morning and evening, ending up with ugly blemishes when the auditor general says they can’t produce the most basic documents in which thieves hide billions of shillings diverted to personal gain.
And while this kind of plunder is going on with abandon, parents, guardians, friends and fellow professionals (are they?) join in the gluttony, thinking the only glory in using one’s skill is holding wads of bank notes and exposing their coteries to blank-cheque living while the struggling taxpayer is made poorer.
If the so-called professionals cannot die defending integrity, honesty, and living beyond reproach then schools are being used to kill, not save, the world as Nelson Mandela dreamt.
Talent is good. But it is inferior to character. When a skilled and talented person runs amok, the people perish, if to borrow the Holy Writ wisdom.
