First (and last) complaint

I promise this will be my first and last bitch for the day. But just today.

Yesterday, I left my checkbook at the post office in the town where I teach. When I reached my hometown, some 15 miles away, I began wondering where my checkbook was (something I do about ten times a day - absent minded - I know - I know). I couldn’t find it, so I thought I’d call the post office from our house.

As I walked in the door, KoKo told me that the police department called (always what you want to hear when you get home). She said they had my checkbook. A concerned citizen was nice enough to turn it in! Karma baby, Karma!

So I headed back out the door for the trek back to where I work. On the way up, I turned on the radio to listen to the baseball team. The pre-game show was on and they were giving area scores. One happened to be from our softball team.

This got me thinking about the one player on that team who came into my room after a terrible incident in their family. They said they wouldn’t be able to attend regularly, and I said you just take care of your family and get this cleared up. When that is done, we’ll figure out what to do about your classes.

And sure enough they missed my classes yesterday. But I bet my mortgage that this person played in the softball game last night. How is that possible?

Now I don’t want to seem like a prick, but where are our priorities. So today I will email her coach and a power that be and try to get to the bottom of this. I know it will do little good (two years ago I had a hockey player failing two of my classes, yet they still were allowed to play - well, he didn’t really play, he just dressed - but still he was failing! I actually had a power that be come up and tell me that he talked to the player and that he wasn’t going to do anything about his F’s because he wanted him to dress for the state playoffs. I’m not making this up! Are we a school or what? What kind of message is this sending, “I’m not worried that you have to F’s third quarter of your senior year and that you might not graduate, but I hope you enjoy dressing for the state hockey tournament?” Idiocy), but I’m hoping to make a point: athletics are fine, but in the grand scheme of things, they won’t make a difference in your life. Getting your high school degree will. Learning how to write effectively will. Going 15-5 in softball won’t. Sorry.

This whole spring quarter has gotten me so damn frustrated with all the other extra curricular crap that goes on here. School is not even second. It’s more like third or fourth. If it’s not baseball games, it’s the choir rehearsal. If it’s not choir rehearsal, it’s the orchestra trip. And on and on and on.

It’s to the point where I feel ashamed to be a coach. I mean where are our priorities? What message are we sending to these kids? If some worked half as hard in their studies as they did in their off season and in-season conditioning programs, who knows where they’d end up (and to his credit, the football coach routinely preaches, “If you want your kid to get a scholarship, don’t point him toward the practice field. Point him toward the library. There are nine academic scholarships for every athletic scholarship.” Now that is some sanity).

I mean could I live with football. Damn right. I wouldn’t have to devote three hours every Sunday to my damn Bengals. Then I wouldn’t have to sulk and mope around after they blew their lead in the fourth quarter and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. What a blessed relief that would be.

Does anyone have an answer?

I’m so frustrated with what is happening with our kids that I’ve sought an answer in the book “The Case Against Adolescence.”

Here is an excerpt from the book jacket - “This groundbreaking book argues that adolescence is an unnecessary period of life that people are better off without. Robert Epstein, former editor-in-chief of “Psychology Today,” shows that teen turmoil is caused by outmoded systems put in place a century ago which destroyed the continuum between childhood and adulthood.”

Now that sounds interesting!