I suspect that I am wading into some deep water here by opening this discussion. But I encounter this issue in my own work as an educational consultant. That's the matter of the parent who is determined that his son is going to be the next Wayne Gretsky, Tiger Woods or Rafael Nadal. This kind of parent has his child's life planned out to the nth degree from birth. He remains firmly convinced that the right prep school will lead to a celebrity college which in turn will culminate in a pro career.
Read Leo Marshall's piece An Admission Director’s Perspective on Athletics. I agree with Leo. A sound education which develops and affirms the whole child is more important than creating the next Michael Jordan. What do you think?
Comments
i agree! so many kids focus on a sport that they do not have the talent to pursue in college to the detrimet of their academics..parents need to be more realistic
I agree, but take Leo’s comments a step further. In my book a good athletic program is one that has it’s primary focus on intra-murals. The goal is to get everyone involved.
a local high school has a really really good basketball team. But they have 2,500 students, and there is what, 10 players that dress for the team each game. Less than 1% of the student body. This may do good things for the 10 players but what about the other 1240 boys?
A school this size could have their own league internally. Divide the school into 8 houses. Each house is responsible for fronting a basketball team, a football team, a hockey team, a baseball team, a soccer team, a fencing team, track, cross country, orienteering, badminton, bocce, and so on. Try to set it up so that there are enough events that everyone has a role. Keep house standings — there are points for participating, and points for winning. This means that even a kid who loses the badminton game earns points for his house. Thats more than the house that didn’t put forward a badminton team.
Coaching this is tough. It will mean that most teachers will have to coach something. But sports are for more than just the atheletes.
I agree with Jane, children should NOT be pushed into sports (or any other activity for that matter).