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$$$ count. In some schools, the ISSA T&F Champs money goes a long way in paying for other sports.
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What price of victory in high school sports?
BY LASCELVE GRAHAM
Saturday, February 04, 2012
THE business of importing students into our high schools for the purpose of having the school win in some sporting endeavour is quite understandably not a problem that is unique to Jamaica.
What seems to be unique to us though, is that our educational leaders are still stuck at the first hurdle of recognising how despicable the practice is, and ultimately how dangerous it is to the proper functioning of our education system.
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1/1
The following passage taken from the Marquette Sports Law Review, a USA publication, when considered against the dilly-dallying of local “educators” who have spoken and written on this issue, makes the point very well.
“For decades, the community of high schools in the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) has sought to regulate interscholastic athletics by prohibiting external influences upon students that are potentially inconsistent with the educational and community values of athletic participation. Traditionally, the recruiting of a student for athletic purposes has been the primary influence that the OHSAA membership has sought to combat. Today, an additional new threat has emerged as the powerful external influence of television is poised to extend its immense pressure to the interscholastic athletic environment.
“At the intercollegiate level, television, recruiting and the competitive value of athletics (ie, the economic pressure to win) form an "iron triangle" that has polluted the educational and community values of the intercollegiate athletic environment. Television demands a winning "intercollegiate athletic product", which in turn demands effective recruiting, which in turn demands television exposure. The iron triangle has proven to be virtually indestructible and survived the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) membership's 50 years of reform efforts.
“Like NCAA schools caught in the grip of the "iron triangle," the OHSAA membership has almost no control over television or the external pressure to win, but the OHSAA's members can control recruiting. The “recruiting game” has been called “sport's most miserable affliction”.
It seems to me to be an affliction that the leaders of even our most religiousminded and religion-infused schools have clearly not yet even recognised for the role it undoubtedly plays in undermining the teaching of ethical, moral and other values in schools. For example, when a student is brought into an academic environment where he/she is clearly out of his/her league, in academic terms, and the purpose can be seen by other students to be that of securing a win for the school in some sport, no amount of double-speak by invited pastors or other “respected” leaders in the education system is likely to mask the lesson that it teaches.
Our students learn the lesson that winning at any cost is the important thing and they recognise the hypocrisy in those who loudly and piously speak about fairness and honesty, while they accommodate in their schools those who, by their academic performance, do not deserve to be there. The double standard is obvious. The disservice done to students, who might otherwise have had that space, does not go unnoticed — in my experience.
Unlike the USA where geographic districting of students is the primary factor determining the form of the public school communities, in Jamaica, academic philosophy is the primary factor determining the form of our high school communities. In order to preserve the educational value of the “high school sports product” the composition of the competing teams must at least be determined by the same academic factors that determine the form of a particular high school community as a whole or else there will be a disconnect between the team and the school which it claims to represent. The team will be counterfeit and not a genuine representation of the school. Recruiting (importation) subordinates the educational value of high school sports to the competitive value (economic pressure to win) of high school sports, and is a major obstacle to conserving the high school sports environment.
Importation pollutes the educational value of the high school sports environment by, among other things, sending the message to students that the external, competitive value of sports in the form of glory and profit is more valuable to the student than the student's internal academic and social development. Recruiting pollutes students by sending the message that developing one's sports assets (which for all but a tiny percentage of students are wasting assets) for consumption by others is more valuable to the student than developing one's academic and social assets (which for all students are appreciating assets) for one's own personal growth and benefit.
Although ISSA has done a very good job in other areas involving high school sports, the measures put in by ISSA relating to recruiting (importation) have been to say the least ineffective. Schools import without pause, with impunity and disdain, without fear of any sanctions. It is as if we have succumbed, without a fight to “the competitive value of athletics (ie the economic pressure to win)” mentioned above. It seems that the dominant principals are satisfied that the financial and status benefits derived from recruiting outweigh the value of sports as a teaching tool, as a medium for helping to impart the values, attitudes and principles the society should embrace.
What ISSA should market is competition itself, contests between competing high schools. ISSA markets a particular brand of sports, high school sports. The identification of this “product” with an academic tradition differentiates high school sports from and makes it more popular than other sporting products to which it might otherwise be comparable. Hence, there is no need to pay the high price extorted by importation to keep high school sports well liked and well supported. It is not in keeping with the spirit of high school sports and not in the best interests of our children in the long run.
Editor’s note: Dr Lascelve “Muggy” Graham is a former STGC, All-Manning, All-Schools and Jamaica football captain.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sport...#ixzz1lPocIGyK
[COLOR=#113f8f !important] [/COLOR]
What price of victory in high school sports?
BY LASCELVE GRAHAM
Saturday, February 04, 2012
THE business of importing students into our high schools for the purpose of having the school win in some sporting endeavour is quite understandably not a problem that is unique to Jamaica.
What seems to be unique to us though, is that our educational leaders are still stuck at the first hurdle of recognising how despicable the practice is, and ultimately how dangerous it is to the proper functioning of our education system.
#slideshowtoggler { FILTER: none !important; ZOOM: normal !important}#slideshowtoggler A { FILTER: none !important; ZOOM: normal !important}#slideshowtoggler IMG { FILTER: none !important; ZOOM: normal !important}
1/1 The following passage taken from the Marquette Sports Law Review, a USA publication, when considered against the dilly-dallying of local “educators” who have spoken and written on this issue, makes the point very well.
“For decades, the community of high schools in the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) has sought to regulate interscholastic athletics by prohibiting external influences upon students that are potentially inconsistent with the educational and community values of athletic participation. Traditionally, the recruiting of a student for athletic purposes has been the primary influence that the OHSAA membership has sought to combat. Today, an additional new threat has emerged as the powerful external influence of television is poised to extend its immense pressure to the interscholastic athletic environment.
“At the intercollegiate level, television, recruiting and the competitive value of athletics (ie, the economic pressure to win) form an "iron triangle" that has polluted the educational and community values of the intercollegiate athletic environment. Television demands a winning "intercollegiate athletic product", which in turn demands effective recruiting, which in turn demands television exposure. The iron triangle has proven to be virtually indestructible and survived the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) membership's 50 years of reform efforts.
“Like NCAA schools caught in the grip of the "iron triangle," the OHSAA membership has almost no control over television or the external pressure to win, but the OHSAA's members can control recruiting. The “recruiting game” has been called “sport's most miserable affliction”.
It seems to me to be an affliction that the leaders of even our most religiousminded and religion-infused schools have clearly not yet even recognised for the role it undoubtedly plays in undermining the teaching of ethical, moral and other values in schools. For example, when a student is brought into an academic environment where he/she is clearly out of his/her league, in academic terms, and the purpose can be seen by other students to be that of securing a win for the school in some sport, no amount of double-speak by invited pastors or other “respected” leaders in the education system is likely to mask the lesson that it teaches.
Our students learn the lesson that winning at any cost is the important thing and they recognise the hypocrisy in those who loudly and piously speak about fairness and honesty, while they accommodate in their schools those who, by their academic performance, do not deserve to be there. The double standard is obvious. The disservice done to students, who might otherwise have had that space, does not go unnoticed — in my experience.
Unlike the USA where geographic districting of students is the primary factor determining the form of the public school communities, in Jamaica, academic philosophy is the primary factor determining the form of our high school communities. In order to preserve the educational value of the “high school sports product” the composition of the competing teams must at least be determined by the same academic factors that determine the form of a particular high school community as a whole or else there will be a disconnect between the team and the school which it claims to represent. The team will be counterfeit and not a genuine representation of the school. Recruiting (importation) subordinates the educational value of high school sports to the competitive value (economic pressure to win) of high school sports, and is a major obstacle to conserving the high school sports environment.
Importation pollutes the educational value of the high school sports environment by, among other things, sending the message to students that the external, competitive value of sports in the form of glory and profit is more valuable to the student than the student's internal academic and social development. Recruiting pollutes students by sending the message that developing one's sports assets (which for all but a tiny percentage of students are wasting assets) for consumption by others is more valuable to the student than developing one's academic and social assets (which for all students are appreciating assets) for one's own personal growth and benefit.
Although ISSA has done a very good job in other areas involving high school sports, the measures put in by ISSA relating to recruiting (importation) have been to say the least ineffective. Schools import without pause, with impunity and disdain, without fear of any sanctions. It is as if we have succumbed, without a fight to “the competitive value of athletics (ie the economic pressure to win)” mentioned above. It seems that the dominant principals are satisfied that the financial and status benefits derived from recruiting outweigh the value of sports as a teaching tool, as a medium for helping to impart the values, attitudes and principles the society should embrace.
What ISSA should market is competition itself, contests between competing high schools. ISSA markets a particular brand of sports, high school sports. The identification of this “product” with an academic tradition differentiates high school sports from and makes it more popular than other sporting products to which it might otherwise be comparable. Hence, there is no need to pay the high price extorted by importation to keep high school sports well liked and well supported. It is not in keeping with the spirit of high school sports and not in the best interests of our children in the long run.
Editor’s note: Dr Lascelve “Muggy” Graham is a former STGC, All-Manning, All-Schools and Jamaica football captain.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sport...#ixzz1lPocIGyK