American Gladiators: The Standard

img credit: http://logos.wikia.com/wiki/American_Gladiators

Once upon a time, there were men and women who do battle against a group of spectacularly evolved humans to determine just how strong, fast, and fierce they were. This group of super humans were fast, tall, strong and decked out in the splangliest of spangly unitards you've ever seen. And they had super human names. Names like Laser, Turbo, Gemini, Thunder, and Ice. There was even a Zap. That's right. A verb. A strong, present-tense, no-participle, no-gerund (look it up), onomatopoeia verb. That's the kind of name reserved for the best of the best. (See: Sting)

There was an arena. There were proper-noun events like The Joust, Hang Tough (no NKOTB affiliation here), Atlasphere, Breakthrough & Conquer, and Human Cannonball. There were lights. There were cameras, and you know there was action. More action than a mere mortal could fit into an hour-long television experience.

See the way the powerful Gladiator makes light work of the regular human in "Hang Tough".

And the reason that men and women would volunteer for public sacrifice at the hands of these behemoths was that they were the standard of power and athleticism, and to challenge them meant to be able to prove that you were worthy of the challenge.

They are not unlike the standards that we have for our students. Our standards represent a level our students haven't reached yet. So we train them. We show them what it will take. We make modifications to allow them the edge that will allow them to reach new, never-before-seen heights.

So that's what we're talking about tonight. Taking our students to the next level. Just like those few people who were able to summon the courage and fortitude to best the American Gladiators, we're going to understand what our standards are and where we fit into helping our students reach those peaks.

We'll see you tonight, Tuesday June 2, 2015 at 9 PM EDT for #totallyrossome.