Considering John Taylor Gatto is a famous high school teacher, it's a logical assumption to make that he is referring to private high schools, many of which do in fact make sports mandatory.

Isn't it true that when one wants to make a point (especially a polemical one), one should remove all ambiguity? If "schools" refer to "high schools" not universities, then the writer should make that explicit.

"Mandatory sports" means "mandatory team sports", I presume. Schools don't want students to be in shape, they want students to feel loyalty towards their alma mater.

That's a valid point to make - and somebody's argued it on this thread already.

I agree that ambiguity should be removed, but that's a conversation for another day. I don't feel this particular story warrants it.

Let's see:

- the author does not define "grace"

- the author does not define "sports"

- the author does not define "schools"

Sure, the text is not ambiguous at all!

Maybe I am just being a pedantic academic, but in Math if you want to make a point using X, Y and Z, you usually start be defining X, Y, and Z. Human language is vague already, there's no need to make it even worse.