Stop the Insanity

Really? A high school football team needs to kickoff its 2012 season with a road game 5,200 miles away?

That is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. But then again that just illustrates the insanity around American sports.

This article comes at a time when we are looking at how to improve our school, namely better educating our kids.

Our principal made a good point - he said - we could rest our hat on a lot of the 'good' stuff that we do - our sports teams are relatively successful and we have good numbers, our prom is a success, our school climate is good, our other extra curriculars are good. In fact, we look like a good school. But our measurements don't bear this out at all (out of 49 different measurements - BST, MCA, and ACT scores - among others, we are a whopping 7/49 for our students being at or above the state average).

We need more rigor, better classroom practices, more engagement, and greater effort from all involved (teachers, parents, and students).

But then I read an article about a high school football team shelling out money (they are starting to fund raise money right now) for the trip, and I think we've got it all wrong in America.

How many great teachers would that trip pay for? How many iPads or Smartboards?

How do other countries (namely Finland, India, Norway, and China) who dominate us in our comparative test scores treat sports?

How do you fix a system where a student/parent/coach won't think twice about working far harder for an extra curricular activity than a homework assignment?

I'm not saying cut sports, but let's keep them in their proper place. Until we tackle that issue, we will sit in the middle of the pack for our education scores.