The Lou Holtz Philosophy

I read an article recently about Lou Holtz the football coach which profiled his philosophy of not only handling his football teams, but also life. At other times BestView has pointed out individuals who stated things in a way which greatly exceeded my limited ability to express them. Lou did this when asked about his previous dismissal of players who broke team rules. At times these players were unable to compete in important games. Lou explained that his actions were simply an enforcement of the player's own decisions. The players were told if you do this or that, you are not going to play and will be sent home. When they choose to break the rules, they choose not to play. He thinks people have to be held accountable and privileges packaged with responsibilities. He tells his players that just because they did not honor their word when they agreed to obey team rules, they should not ask him to break his word to send them home.

This is, of course, a common sense way to raise children and a great way to explain to children the way in which "punishment" is really just a consequence of choices they make. Once the child learns the validity of this concept, one might expect that later in life as a young adult, the relationship between choices and outcomes is not only understood but becomes fundamental in decisions on such things as education, job choices, marital relationships, saving for retirement, etc.