Where does all this (Interscholastic Activities) become really meaningful?
Is it just a game, or is it a series of life’s lessons that are learned in a harmless yet meaningful environment which teaches kids to succeed later on, regardless of pursuit?
Obviously, the latter is true in most circumstances, at least that’s the intended goal as part of the experience.
Activities do not have a meaningful report card experience at the time of the event, but rather longitudinally five, ten, fifteen and thirty years after participation has occurred. Both direct and indirect participants have affirmed the substance of the values taught through the interscholastic educational experience through the NMAA’s value surveys conducted each year at the state events among other forums. In each category, the trend strongly supports the notion that the values learned from interscholastic experience become more evident the further along in life the student, or adult if you will, gets from the actual participation itself. Over 90% of those responding affirm that activities played a major role in their value selection or reinforcement of what they learn positively at home. Like math, literature, history, the social sciences, etc., true value does not come just with rote memory but in fact having experienced something that laid a foundation for success in one form or another later on in life. Thus, the report card for the laboratory for learning we call interscholastic activities lies not in whether an individual sank the free throw, achieved first chair, or became president of the Student Council, but rather what they learned through the preparation and experience that created a comfort
level when exposed to those tracks of life. Consequently, as the research results indicate, the value of making or missing the free throw is impertinent, but rather having had the experience under pressure becomes more important as the years go on. The latter is reminiscent of one of the original reasons why bleachers were created in athletic endeavors, which was to place young people in stressful situations that, in turn, conditioned them to be better leaders when the chips were down. Further evidence why coaches and administrators must take the initiative and put people in the stands in an effort to continually to make this educationally substantive from that perspective.
Leadership isn’t until you display it, and it becomes all of our responsibility to assure that these experiences are wholesome, fair, equitable and, regardless of the outcome or what happens during the course of a contest, will not allow it to detract from what is important—and it’s the experience itself. Those of us who choose to allow officials to be demeaned, coaches to be dismissed because of wins and losses as the only measure of success, are failing to put this entire experience into perspective as a part of the curriculum for life don’t necessarily fail the immediate, but in fact forsake the future with regard to the substantive benefit young people take out of the interscholastic educational process. Positive, long-term experiences are indigenous to the process. Inculcating the values of the experience rather than the immediate result (although it’s important to always teach to win as part of the concept of competition), is the only true representation or report card, if you will, that’s important. In fact, an argument can be made that the only aspect of the formal educational process that truly addresses the concept of success and transcends each of the disciplines is the interscholastic educational experience. The fact that more leaders come from the interscholastic experience, Fortune 500 company CEO’s being ex-athletes, grade point averages higher for those who participate as
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opposed to those who don’t participate, as well as being a solid predictor of success, again is affirmed by the value research conducted by the NMAA alluded to earlier.
It’s not just a game, and when it is a game only, or when we get disgusted at officials, coaches for superficial reasons, we devalue what may be one of the more important tenets of the formal educational process in addition to relieving the pressure of being the best experience during a secondary career. It’s always easier to look at activities as a superficial measure of success and then forget the kids after they’ve graduated. In this author’s of the college fraternity, like many of us, have forgotten that the true test of success for all of us is whether or not those kids 10, 20 and 30 years develop into productive citizens with strong family values that are spiritually well-founded and seek a better tomorrow, regardless of pursuit. The latter is what represents the true litmus test of how good we are and not necessarily immediate achievement, not goals, of winning a game, a title, or whatever.
Additions:
I sometimes question myself the validity of all of it when too few students can remember teachers that gave them a practicum base through theory, bits of knowledge, factual information, famous literary personalities or how to structure a sentence, but they will remember a goal line stand, an important free throw, the joy of going to an event, or running for office, etc.
The educational paradigm most likely used in the future will require an understanding by educators of their impact during the present. No place within the formal educational process are the three factors of time (past, present and future) more evident in their importance.