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Man come to his f!@#$%ing sense or has he?
Strange bedfellows: Basic education, sports
Lascelve GRAHAM
Monday, April 27, 2015
Let us allow our schools to fully focus on providing all our young citizens with a rounded education.
IT has been shown repeatedly throughout the years that education is the most powerful lever for systematically lifting people out of poverty, up the social ladder, up the economic scale. Recent studies, including that published by Eric Maskin et al, Harvard professors, and highlighted in The Economist (August 2014) under the heading, 'Learn and be less unequal', and another (December 2014) by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) titled, 'Economic inequality significantly curbs economic growth', clearly emphasise the importance of education to the development of a country and its people.
The OECD research showed that there is a direct relationship between the lack of formal education and inequality, and that poor people underestimate the value of formal education. Other studies have shown that poor people's (perceived) return from education is inaccurate. This is expressed in sentiments like: "Sports people and entertainers make a lot of money and are not usually well educated, so education is not critical; emphasis on education is just a Third World thing." The OECD study confirmed that formal education is vital to economic equity.
Schools are the specialised institutions set up to deliver formal education to the masses. Schools help our youngsters become successful, useful adult citizens to fit them for life. School is the only place that children of poor people are exposed to specialised facilities like chemistry, physics, botany, zoology, computer, language laboratories, etc. This is the only place they will be systematically exposed to a curriculum geared to have them achieve proficiency in various subject areas.
This mission must not be corrupted, distorted, undermined, de-emphasised, or compromised in a globalised, knowledge-based, innovation-driven world economy, where we are competing with every other country in the world. All activities in school, including extra/co-curricular ones like sports, drama, dance, music, etc, must contribute to the accomplishment of this mission, or they should not be a part of school. The primary role of these activities in school is different to their roles outside of school, and they must be tempered accordingly to clearly acknowledge and transmit this message. They are an extension of the classroom; educational tools used to help teach to all students skills that may be more difficult to learn in the classroom.
With respect to these activities, in schools, the process is at least as important as the outcome -- if not more so -- unlike the case outside of school, where winning is the main objective. This is how school is utilised by all our competitors, even the USA -- the only country of economic significance with a jaundiced system where educational institutions have a strong link to sports. In other countries of the world, especially those with highly rated education systems, there is almost no inter-school sports competition and, where it exists, it is very secondary. These countries understand the very high priority that education needs to hold in order to have a viable economy. These countries celebrate education.
This education encompasses socialisation of our young citizens to inculcate or strengthen pro-social skills, eg non-cognitive skills like delaying of gratification, perseverance, academic behaviours, academic mindsets, etc, which will help them do better at school, at work, and in life generally.
This is where extra-curricular activities, especially sports, can and should play a pivotal, transformative role in helping to turn students, particularly our boys, on to learning. Sports generates passion, captures the imagination of our youth and, as a microcosm of life, can present and be the laboratory for concepts which may be more difficult to concretise in the classroom. These extra/co-curricular activities also minister to the spirit and so can have a calming, soothing effect on the psyche, which is therapeutic and facilitates confidence, perseverance, listening, and learning.
Proper socialisation of our youth will engender the development of pro-social skills which will help the youngsters master the formal education to which they are exposed. This is in keeping with the mission of school. This is the context, the framework within which extra/co-curricular activities must operate. Hence, whereas schools may help to unearth and identify sports talent, they cannot serve as the developmental arms of the various sports associations. This represents a conflict of interest. Recruiting for sports purposes by our schools signals a misunderstanding of the role of sports in school. It is a hijacking of education by those in the private and public sector who would win at all costs -- students for sports, not sports for students.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with recruiting per se. It is entirely dependent on the context and mission of the group. It is understandable, for example, that The Jamaican Folk Singers recruit based on one's ability to sing, or that a dance school recruits based on one's ability to dance, or that a sports academy or club recruits based on one's ability in the sport. Given their missions, it would be absurd for any of the above to recruit based on one's fitness, intellectual or academic ability. Similarly, given its mission, it is absurd for schools to recruit based on one's sports ability.
We need to organise youth sports differently and to put in place the relevant institutions and pathways for the development of youth sports talent so as to stop the distortion and de-emphasis of the primary mission of our schools: education. Schools cannot serve two masters.
As Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder and author of The Talent Equation (2013), confirmed in his article, 'The value of an education in today's economy', education is still an essential way to strengthen your career, especially in a competitive job market. He affirms that education is fundamental to strengthening the labour force and that, even in today's economy of job shortages, education retains its high value and is still the strongest step one can take in one's career. He provided the data to support the facts that higher education lowers your chances of unemployment and also increases the likelihood of higher earning power. His conclusion is that, fortunately, in a job market -- that has remained uncertain for too long -- an education remains one item that rewards you today and will continue to gain value in the future.
Dr Lascelve 'Muggy' Graham is a former Jamaica football captain.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...lease_17027384
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Seems to me to be the same mixed up = confused individual!!! ...but he just may be on the road to Damascus!!! ???????????????
...at this moment his thoughts are akin the removal of the skin to save someone's life as he concentrates on intake of fuel to preserve the other organs! Unfortunately if such is employed all the other organs die and thus the individual follows suit! Fri&^%$#@&& mixed up = confused!!!Last edited by Karl; May 1, 2015, 10:17 AM."Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
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