Sunday, May 3, 2009

5) The Culture of Sports Needs to be De-emphasized

A few years back, I stood inside the main doors of a Kenai peninsula high school with the principal and commented on the number of plaques honoring each student who held a school record in each sport the school offered. I wondered out loud why those with the highest SAT scores or who were selected as National Merit Scholars were not also included. At another peninsula high school a team that recently won a small schools state sport championships were regaled with a school-wide tribute. Classes were stopped and all students and teachers were expected to bridge their hands and cheer as the team ran the gauntlet under the extended arms. Yep, a couple of central office administrators and school board members showed up to show their admiration. At this same school, students have won national and international academic competitions without so much as a handshake of recognition from the principal. Sport is the tail that wags the dog of education and that attitude causes more harm than does good. Oh, I am all about fitness and know the value of team and individual sports, but if we really want schools to focus on the acquisition of reading, writing and computational skills and if we want our students to understand science and to appreciate the struggle of humankind to make the world a better place, we need to de-emphasis the culture that views academic success as secondary to success in sports.

3 comments:

  1. Jim,
    Great ideas on reform. The key to reforming sports is to integrate education into it. Currently the only tie between school and sport is that if you don't do well academically you don't get to participate. This says that there really is no value to sport. The way to fix this, especially in the bush, is to tie academics to sports. When a team travels for basketball they should also participate in a spelling bee, writing contest, science fair, or other academic endeavor. I would also advocate for longer sports trips. We spend thousands of educational dollars on sports travel and get little in return. If students travelled and participated in academics and athletics while there we would get more for our money. This would also offer a chance for our students to shine academically in a competitive setting amongst their peers. Currently the only time they are judged academically is in state tests that have little to do with their lives. Often they fail at these tests leaving the only avenue of success, athletics. We should focus on using sports to reach our students. Instead there are two schools of thought, either sports are a waste of money, or they are the only important thing. Both groups need to view sports as an avenue to better educating our students.
    Thanks,
    Rusty

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like your idea of combining sports trips with an academic component.

    Here's a wild thought - build some sort of academic part into the score of whatever sport is played - a fifth quarter so to speak. Additional points would be given to the team that outscored their opponent in some sort of academic competition and it would be added to the score of the game and just as much a part of the outcome of the game as the points cored on the court/field/mat/pool/course.

    ReplyDelete
  3. How do you think the creation of a global culture through sports, movies, television, and music influences the development of the world's economy?

    phlebotomy training in alaska

    ReplyDelete