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High Schools Aren't Sports Academies
Published: Wednesday | January 5, 20110 Comments and 0 Reactions
Lascelve Graham, Contributor
The practice of recruiting youngsters into our high schools for the purpose of influencing the outcome of sporting events is symptomatic of a larger problem which seems to be running amok in the society - the erosion, the slow, silent, imperceptible but apparently inexorable eating away of the integrity of our people and our systems.
The primary purpose of high school is to expand academic capacity, that is, to teach us to think critically, analyse, ask the right questions and solve problems, even those that have not yet evolved. In a number of countries, this is all high schools do. Sports is taken care of elsewhere. High schools are specialised academic institutions. Hence, the admission criteria need to reflect this.
Jamaican, like English, high schools believe that sports is one of the develop-'mental' tools (others include religion, music, drama, etc.) that can help youngsters develop character, mental toughness, and discipline.
We believe sports can play a key role in helping to teach values, attitudes and life skills to youngsters who have satisfied the academic admission criteria and who deserve, as shown by their demonstrated academic potential, to be in the school.
Reward the right students
Sports should, therefore, in principle, minister to these youngsters, the great majority of whom come from poor, deprived communities. These youngsters have sacrificed, some of them at times going hungry, reading under street lights, etc., and have made the effort to be where they are. Sports must, in principle, give those youngsters every opportunity to succeed, every opportunity for exposure, every opportunity to be more rounded individuals.
If we go outside to bring sporting expertise into a given school, with the intention of influencing sporting events, it is undermining and corrupting the educational framework in which sports should be operating. Sports is not performing its function in the education system. It is defeating the purpose for which it is in schools.
Sports must work with the children it has up to the high school level. This is what happens, even in the USA, a country which we seem to ape in so many things. It is even stronger in England, on which our system is modelled. Sports in high school is a tool. It is like the anvil and hammer which are used to shape, forge and temper the steel that is to be made into a sword.
Focus on brain, not brawn
High schools are specialised academic institutions. Their core function is expanding academic capacity. As such, they should be looking for academic talent, not sporting talent. They should be looking for children who show acumen in, e.g., information technology, chemistry, physics or biology, etc., but may not have appropriate laboratory facilities where they are.
Let the high schools give those students a second chance. Let them give the late academic bloomers a chance. In all of this, we must not forget that there is a limited number of spaces in our high schools. We do not have unlimited resources. High schools should be looking to import youngsters like these, not 'sports stars', to fill these places, since the required facilities will only be found in these specialised academic institutions.
Schools must discover, facilitate, encourage, motivate, protect and develop the full intellectual capacity of our youngsters. That is the primary and overwhelming function of schools up to the high-school level.
If we are going to be able to compete in today's knowledge-based economy, we must place the greatest value on education. Importing youngsters into high schools, to influence the outcome of sporting events, is exacerbating the education problem.
Published: Wednesday | January 5, 20110 Comments and 0 Reactions
Lascelve Graham, Contributor
The practice of recruiting youngsters into our high schools for the purpose of influencing the outcome of sporting events is symptomatic of a larger problem which seems to be running amok in the society - the erosion, the slow, silent, imperceptible but apparently inexorable eating away of the integrity of our people and our systems.
The primary purpose of high school is to expand academic capacity, that is, to teach us to think critically, analyse, ask the right questions and solve problems, even those that have not yet evolved. In a number of countries, this is all high schools do. Sports is taken care of elsewhere. High schools are specialised academic institutions. Hence, the admission criteria need to reflect this.
Jamaican, like English, high schools believe that sports is one of the develop-'mental' tools (others include religion, music, drama, etc.) that can help youngsters develop character, mental toughness, and discipline.
We believe sports can play a key role in helping to teach values, attitudes and life skills to youngsters who have satisfied the academic admission criteria and who deserve, as shown by their demonstrated academic potential, to be in the school.
Reward the right students
Sports should, therefore, in principle, minister to these youngsters, the great majority of whom come from poor, deprived communities. These youngsters have sacrificed, some of them at times going hungry, reading under street lights, etc., and have made the effort to be where they are. Sports must, in principle, give those youngsters every opportunity to succeed, every opportunity for exposure, every opportunity to be more rounded individuals.
If we go outside to bring sporting expertise into a given school, with the intention of influencing sporting events, it is undermining and corrupting the educational framework in which sports should be operating. Sports is not performing its function in the education system. It is defeating the purpose for which it is in schools.
Sports must work with the children it has up to the high school level. This is what happens, even in the USA, a country which we seem to ape in so many things. It is even stronger in England, on which our system is modelled. Sports in high school is a tool. It is like the anvil and hammer which are used to shape, forge and temper the steel that is to be made into a sword.
Focus on brain, not brawn
High schools are specialised academic institutions. Their core function is expanding academic capacity. As such, they should be looking for academic talent, not sporting talent. They should be looking for children who show acumen in, e.g., information technology, chemistry, physics or biology, etc., but may not have appropriate laboratory facilities where they are.
Let the high schools give those students a second chance. Let them give the late academic bloomers a chance. In all of this, we must not forget that there is a limited number of spaces in our high schools. We do not have unlimited resources. High schools should be looking to import youngsters like these, not 'sports stars', to fill these places, since the required facilities will only be found in these specialised academic institutions.
Schools must discover, facilitate, encourage, motivate, protect and develop the full intellectual capacity of our youngsters. That is the primary and overwhelming function of schools up to the high-school level.
If we are going to be able to compete in today's knowledge-based economy, we must place the greatest value on education. Importing youngsters into high schools, to influence the outcome of sporting events, is exacerbating the education problem.
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