"When you try and do two things well, you end up doing both of them poorly, accomplishing neither" We are all over worked, we are all stretched thin, we are all here to help kids learn and achieve to their highest potential. Yet, set in an environment where this task is an uphill battle.
I LOVE sports; Football, Baseball, Hockey, Tennis, Basketball, Cross Country, Volleyball, Soccer. I also feel that sports play an important role in a well-rounded education and are a valuable part of the school's ecosystem. I am faced with a recent revelation and more important question...
If schools exist for education why do we allow, or even encourage the folks in-charge of education and leading learning to spread themselves thin by coaching one or even multiple sports? Why not separate out the roles? If you want to coach you can coach, but you can only teach .50 FTE, or not at all. If you want to teach, you can't coach any extracurricular activities. Now, this is a perfect example of a level 2 change, but I think that it is one that needs some serious discussion.
Education stands at a cross-roads where we can maintain the status-quo or change and raise the bar. All educational institutions have mission statements and I would fathom a guess that none refer to maintaining the athletic prowess of the school. I had an administrator that always asked the question:
Where do we hang our hats? If we hang our hats on sports than that is our focus and if we hang our hats on academics than that is our focus. You can't do both.
What do you think?
