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| Tuesday, April 19, 2005 |
| When I was a kid... |
Two of my kids are in track this year. One of these kids is not really much of a jock, she is more intellectual but she enjoys running so she has joined cross country in the fall and track in the spring. Being the involved parent that I am, I went to most of the cross country meets and attended all of the track meets that I could. I showed up at the first one and I was stunned. There was hardly anyplace to sit down.
Let me regress a minute by saying I was in track for a couple of years before I just admitted to myself that I was in no way a jock, and never would be. At our track meets we were lucky if the coaches showed up, much less parents, grandparents, cousins, your boyfriend's best friend's neighbor from another state. Jeeze!
Now I took this in stride...it was the first track meet maybe everyone was coming out to have a look-see. I went to the second track meet today...thankfully at a biggger stadium at Rocky River High School. Same thing, lots of parents and grandparents. The concession stand was open, they were using the PA system to announce events. It was amazing.
Now I come to my little rant that my friend Orange, who is a teacher, will appreciate. Why can't we get these same parents, grandparents, neighbors and so on involved in the kids academics as we can in their athletics. OK, so cheering on an A is not as much fun as cheering on a runner or a football player, but in the long run it is so much more important. We will pass a levy that will improve the sports areas but can not pass one to get new books. Don't get me started on the administration that figured that the sports were more important and put that on the ballot first.
This is going to end up rambling so stop here if you are bored, but I need to get this out because it just bothers me!
We set athletes on a pedastle. We pay them millions of dollars, we buy their products, we let them know that they are who we would want to be. When they fall from grace for one reason or another we villify them. Many of these athletes come from poor backgrounds. Athletics was the only way for them to get out. Why do we villify them for doing whatever they have to do to stay on top. We made them that way by worshipping the all mighty sports arena. They have nothing to really fall back on. We all know that schools in poor areas are generally sub-par. For many of these athletes, if they have a college education its a joke.
Back to the junior high level. I saw father's there that I am sure took time off work to come, will they take time off to come to the band recital? The choir concert? Probably not.
There probably isn't an aswere to this. It certainly isn't the pen colors our teacher's use (see Orange's rant on this at http://fbitn.blogspot.com/)
But somewhere we need to get across to parents and people in general that sports is not the answer. It's a past time, a hobby, not a way of life. |
posted by Raven @ 12:00 AM  |
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| 1 Comments: |
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The Big Orange is 100% behind ya, woman!! 100% behind ya!!
Now, you KNOW I'm not a jock and I never ONCE bothered to go out for sports 'cuz I knew ahead of time that I suck at 'em (hell, I took KICKBALL LESSONS from my elementary gym teacher, and I didn't do well in the game back THEN, neither!) Perhaps because of that, I've always stressed geekiness (academics) over jockiness (athletics).
The simpliest way to sum it up is from a cartoon my mother (a career teacher of 30 years) had hanging in her room: there's a baseball fan standing on BAGS of money on one side and a thin rock star standing on BAGS of money on the other side. Standing between them is a little woman with a cup of pencils and a card around her neck saying "teacher: please help."
the caption of this picture sums it aallll up:
"SOCIETY REWARDS WHAT IT VALUES."
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The Big Orange is 100% behind ya, woman!! 100% behind ya!!
Now, you KNOW I'm not a jock and I never ONCE bothered to go out for sports 'cuz I knew ahead of time that I suck at 'em (hell, I took KICKBALL LESSONS from my elementary gym teacher, and I didn't do well in the game back THEN, neither!) Perhaps because of that, I've always stressed geekiness (academics) over jockiness (athletics).
The simpliest way to sum it up is from a cartoon my mother (a career teacher of 30 years) had hanging in her room: there's a baseball fan standing on BAGS of money on one side and a thin rock star standing on BAGS of money on the other side. Standing between them is a little woman with a cup of pencils and a card around her neck saying "teacher: please help."
the caption of this picture sums it aallll up:
"SOCIETY REWARDS WHAT IT VALUES."