Are Ethics and Professionalism Declining
The need for ethics or a body of principles, if you will, transcends almost every walk of life. No place in our society is this more evident today than in education. In recent years, the failure of our profession to recognize this area (as part of being a professional) and to reinforce what is right/wrong locally has lead to a gutting of the true purpose of interscholastic activities.
What is our purpose?
To truly understand and deal with this issue one must first have a thorough comprehension of our purpose as interscholastic educators. I’m convinced that many don’t – certainly not in any profound way.
These are your roots: Developed in 1901 or around the turn of the century the interscholastic objective as said to be a consequence of concern expressed by numerous populations that schools and society were not sufficiently teaching those traits necessary to sustain character or attain success in a competitive society. Sports were viewed as a practical and motivating way to accomplish this particular purpose. Thus, the Interscholastic Objective was born – TO TEACH MORALS, CHARACTER and the AMERICAN SYSTEM OF ACHIEVEMENT. This was a conscious choice by our society.
While it was an embryo of the state associations which govern each of you, it is in fact the foundation of what interscholastic education is today.
In other words, to teach those qualities or values one needs to be successful in a competitive society, such as but not confined to persistence, perseverance, commitment to excellence, the want and desire to be the best you can be at every pursuit, learning how to achieve and commit to a goal, pride, devotion, dedication, the ability to work with others (team work), caring about others, the pursuit of a particular goal, discipline, never being satisfied with less than you’re able to achieve, etc.. All of these are inherently tied in our nation to the formal educational system. You may be interested to know that no other country ties interscholastic activities in purpose and function to the educational process. That’s what it means to be born in the USA and educated in the American Way.
Its important to realize that whether we pay attention to it or not, emotional states, values, and/or mental attitudes are being taught in games, contests, rehearsals, practice (just like physical skills) which contribute to the development and sustenance of our system of achievement. That’s why its difficult for me to understand why we’re afraid to ally with business. We tie our corporate people to the educational purpose. High school sports should be a training ground for good citizenship and high behavioral or ethical standards. This can only be achieved by fostering those ethics of fair play, role modeling, and other mediums in support of the ideal of sportsmanship. Of course, this should lead to traits of generosity, a genuine concern for others and an awareness of the implications of individual behavior.
Ethical Behavior
Ethics by definition are principles of what are considered right or good conduct that relates to the purpose of a particular organization. Professionalism is engaging one’s self in a learned profession and the practicing of strong eithics regardless of the consequences.
The development of good sportsmanship through the practice of ethical behavior and moral reasoning is one of the achnowledged objectives of interscholastic athletics – we forgot our purpose and therein lies the problem. Most everything that I am today is a direct result of junior and senior high school activities. The most influential person in my life personally, as I expect in many of yours, was a coach. Almost every value that I have is a derivative of the influence good or bgad that coaches has on my life, thus the importance of understanding that we are VALUE educators and that each behavioral standard we set for ourseves on or off the floor;field is going to be perpetuated by those people we directly influence in athletics regardless of the role. The evidence strongly suggests that the coach is the most influential person in this process. Does he or she walk the talk?
It’s been said that a cause and effect relationship exists n our society infgluenced by every aspect of athletic programs, which accounts for the outstanding leadership statistics as a consequence, in all roles. A sound and professional interscholastic program is far reading in its impact of every conceivable target population. This is reflected in a recent survey from USA TODAY where is fournd the 95% of the chief executives of the Fortune 500 companies were former interscholastic athletic or activity participants.
While the New Mexico Activities Association developed a formal sportsmanship program with a manual which is available for viewing and your perusal, the basis of a strong interscholastic program with purpose lies in the personnel.
Do They Walk the Talk?
Leaders (coaches/administrators/athletic directors) need to possess strong personal ethics and principles and should view their leadership roles as service first to others rather than an opportunity to fulfill self interest.
– Living by the rules regarless how hard it hurts.
– Integrity
– Never saying anything about someone negatively without addressing them in person
– Staying with the pourpose of the activity and not be concerned by its outcome
– Using only appropriate language
These are among the many practical or common ethics all of us need to subscribe to. Do you walk the talk?
All are integral aspects of a sound interscholastic program. Sportsmanship and strong ethical behavior are, in fact, as alluded to earlier, the basis for our existance. Because you set the tone, you must ask yourself on a regular basis whether or not as an athletic administrator, are you in this because it’s a job or a profession? If you are a professional by definition, you’ll be a positive role model in influencing the thousands of people you are in contact with both directly and indirectly. As a role model and impact person – do you think through the impact you have on kids and do you always keep in mind our purpose? Do you walk the talk?
In our state, as part of our marketing efforts, we communicate this message in direct, indirect or subliminal ways tough all of our publications, public address announcements, sportsmanshii[ sanctioning programs both positive and negative, among other avenues.
Without question, the most singularly difficult challenge facting all of us, as interscholastic educators, is establishing and rewarding those who represent and exemplify the most positive role models as well as sanctionaing negatively those who are not. Rededicating our efforts back to the purpose is monumental challenge but together we will achieve because as Americans we’re born to succeed.
Strategies For Success
I believe the first thing you can do to assure success in this area is to do a thorough job of recruiting personnel who represent those positive attributes that we’ve identified earlier. Know who you are hiring and don’t permit people into significant positins in your school district as coaches/advisors, who are not going to live by the rules in both spirit and intent, established through the state association and your local board of education. Secondly, have a thorough orientation process that includes, yet is not confined to:
– Local board policy
– State association objectives as promulgated through the schools
– Proper attention given behavioral guidelines as they relate to role modeling.
Thirdly, does your district have a coaches evaluation program which ghighlights these areas and is not predicated simply on wins and losses. If the only way you evaluate the coaches is upon his/her success in terms in winning and losing, you are sending a message which indicates that the program is not only superficial and lacks depth, but that it is the only thing that really matters to you as an educational leader. You’re mothing more than a little league program without it. It’s a cop-out ethically regardless of how difficult it is to simply say that’s what the community wants. You are the educational leader and you are the one who is to set the tone as progessionals in our area. In other words, this area of leadership ethically starts with you. As the definition indicates, a strong professional is an effective practitioner of high ethical standards.
Pragmatically, as a member of the National Federation Basketball Rules committee, I mayu not always agree on specific rules that are adopted, but ethically I will enforce them, and noe of you as members will ever hear me say anthing to the contrary when it comes to enforcement. The point is, it’s there and the ethical thing to do is to see that it’s enforced as thought I wrote it. Is is OK to break rules when the cop isn’t looking? For example: In basketgball would you allow your team to duk in the warm up because the officials aren’t there – what message does that send? Do you walk the talk?
Is sportsmanship prevalent in all aspects of the educational arena, and do you reinforce is as the athletic administrator through a code of ethics or fundamental of sportmsmanship as deveeoped by your school and/orthe stae association yourselfves this question. Her is a test:
Isd it OK when you school displays inappropriate sportmanshi behavior at a tournament away that you would not allow at your own school, and do you as an administrator/coach take action, or do you look away and it is OK since everyone else is doing it? Has our purpose been lost? do we understand that consequence is part of learning and that we owe that to error to kids: Do you walk the talk?
No place in education do we teach success and failudre better than athletics. do you live it? Are you consistent in your behavior elsewhere? I think at times we believe that we can walk away from ou jobs, if you will, and somethimes believe that you can leave evertything behind you. As educators you must truly understand our role as professionals, as indicated earlier, and realize that we never take off the hat of a role model in our profession. Are your coaches living examples of that code and purpose – this refers back toyou dresponsibility as both as evaluator as well as a leader. As leaders it’s our job to be role mmodels twenty four hours a day. I for one am proud to bear the resonpsiblity of being an interscholastic educator regardless of the degree of difficulty.
Also, understanding the purpose of intershcholastic activities should be made clear during an interview when hiring coaches and other personnel. We should emphasize the interscholastic objective and ensure these people that they will not be dismissed based on win-loss records exclusively. Rathter, they will be evaluated on their ethics, morals and values as exemplified throught their performance both in and out of the coaching arena. Keep in minnd that values are success traits and great coaches talk about success traits, not winning and losing.
Sportsmanship Promotion
The area of marketing and public relatins perhaps is the most difficult and represetnts our weakest link in the process. We must place as a top priority the selling of sportsmanbship to all populatins as well as the importance of a strong ethical standard. Marketing is not considered a critical role in education still today – even though we have been the victims of a reform movement that has made most of us deformed.
Do you seel the mission of interscholastic activities and are coodes of ethics readlily available and visible to all populations as part of the interscholastic family from participaants a s well as spectators? Is the mission of Activities/Athletics part of a strong marketing program through:
Leaflets,
Brochures
Game programs
Display boards in various facilities
Score boards on outdoor stadiums, among other areas
You role as athletic administrators is to advance the concept and encourage people to understand the differences between interscholastic activities, and college and professional programs. That is, we are driven educationally by our principle purpose and role as value educators as opposed to the college and professional programs which represent the other side of the continuum which are driven by money. You determine whether or not your programs provide a laboratory for learning those traits which we deem necessary to succeed in a competitive society.
Are Ethics and Professionalism Declining?
Everything I have addressed regarding ethics and professionalism here today responds to the question as stated earlier. Are they declining? Indeed they are. As leaders, you should understand that all areas stated previously are prefaced by the educational commitment discussed earlier – anyone can be an events coordinator or game manager, but it requires some depth to research an area, display vision in your decisions and conduct, care about others and interscholastic education’s role as a microcosm of our society and way of life. We have to be better role models in everything we do . We prepare people to succeed or fail in our society. That’s our niche in the total educational experience and ethics, professionalism are obviously a benchmark for that role, and they cannot be relegated to secondary status anymore. In closing, I’d like to share two statements with you. A former New Mexican, who has found a home in the state of California and exemplifies the mission of interscholastic activities, was influenced by family, coaches and administrators, and attributes a good part of his value selection and success to interscholastic activities. He says, and I quote, “I have strong moral convictions of what I think is right and wrong……As long as I feel I live within my moral values, the ones I was brought up on by my coaches and family, I’m comfortable.” – Jim Everett, quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams.
Or perhaps, as Dr. Harry Edwards stated: Those who control the games children play control society’s future.” I would say that characterizes your role and challenge for the future. Are you willing to walk the talk?