Friday, March 16, 2007
Athletics
Today more than ever teachers and school administrators are concerned with accountability. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has increased expectations of classroom performance. Each year the bar is raised a little higher and the stress level of most schools' staff members increase significantly. However at the same time many schools continue to place a very high level of importance on extracurricular athletic activities. Many schools pride themselves in fielding excellent competitive athletic teams. This school pride does however seem to come at a high price. Often athletes are called from classes one or two hours before the end of the school day to travel many miles to participate in athletic events. It is not uncommon for students to arrive back at school after 11:00 P.M. in our district. This may happen two or three times per week as is the case for some baseball, track, and soccer teams that play a lengthy schedule. These athletes are missing many hours of instructional time which is difficult to make up. What is your school's policy regarding student athletes leaving school early for school related athletic events? What are your thoughts concerning this issue? Do the athletes at your school often have to travel several hours for an event?
I drive a bus that transports college sports teams. There are many advantages to be had if you excell in sports. I have seen players study on the bus,and even on the playing field between events in the case of track. We are on the road several days at a time on occasions and study time is provided on these trips. A sense of commitment has to be maintained if you want to excell in sports and in the classroom
ReplyDeleteDuring the middle school years, students are trying to find their "niche". Therefore, it is important to offer a variety of extracurricular activities for students. One activity should, in my opinion, be athletics.
ReplyDeleteAthletics teach students many life skills such as the importance of teamwork, the importance of giving 100%,how to be humble in victory, and how to accept defeat. The advantages of participating in athletics certainly outweigh the disadvantages of missing a few classes.
Of course, students must realize their responsibility of completing assignments and classwork which they missed while being out of the classroom for an athletic event. This gives coaches an excellent opportunity to teach time management skills!