Is Summer Too Busy For The Kids?

Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.  That’s an old saying that comes to mind when I hear people talking about how busy their kids are during the summer.  I think back to my summers as a high school student and I was just as busy as the kids are today, though it was a different kind of busy.  Most of my days were spent getting up around 5:30 in the morning, but rather than hitting the weight room and participating in a conditioning program, I got picked up in front of my house by Kenny Dobenecker and went to work for him, most often tinning barns or shingling houses.  We had an hour lunch break and if we came back to town I would grab a sandwich and head to the baseball field to hit in the batting cage with our baseball coach who was always up there from 11:00 to 1:00 to give us a chance to take some swings.  Back to work after that and then depending on whether I had a game that night or practice, I usually got off around 4:00.  Somehow I worked chores in there as we had 4-H livestock and spent a number of weekends at calf shows.

I hear a lot of people say that our kids are too busy in the summer, and I hear kids say that they don’t want to play baseball or softball because they want to take time off.  And we have kids that don’t come into the school to spend an hour to an hour-and-a-half in our strength and conditioning program.  And yet, I know a number of these same kids are not holding down a full-time job either.  So are kids too busy in the summer, or does it just seem that they are going in a number of different directions because everyone wants a piece of them?  I will give you that as on a recent day my own daughter did strength and conditioning, did some running to work on conditioning for cross country, shot some baskets and played a couple of softball games.  She doesn’t hold down a summer job because she already has plenty to do, but is she any busier than I was some 30+ years ago?

Perhaps the biggest difference between our kid’s summers and the one’s we had years ago is the level of organization and the number of people pulling them.  In some respects, I think that the demands placed on the kids include the parents by default because in some instances they have to help them get where they are going, and of course they want to attend games and other events.  However, I think we need to ask ourselves whether we want our kids busy and doing something productive, or do we want them sitting at home playing video games all day.  Whether it is happening in your home or not, it is going on in a lot of places.  There are a lot of kids wasting away the summer.  Toss in the fact that not as many kids are holding down summer jobs as there once was and I would suggest that keeping kids as busy as we can is also keeping them out of trouble.  While it may stress us as parents, I believe that busy is a good thing!  Yes, there is a limit, but for the most part I believe that kids want to be busy and doing something.  We certainly don’t want them hanging out in that fella’s workshop!

Too Many Projects!

In a meeting I had with a set of parents recently, I was struck by a comment that was made.  Before I go any further, this is not an attempt to discredit or criticize the parents for their comment.  Rather, I am going to use it to make a few points that I believe are very important relative to education as we now know it and as we go forward.  Basically, their comment was “Why are their so many projects?  What is going on with all of these projects?  Why aren’t kids just taking tests?”

The disconnect was a bit surprising because we school folk had apparently not done as good of a job as I thought we had of sharing information about what works and what doesn’t in education to parents and the community.  There are a number of different kinds of assessment, but one type that is being used more and more in the classrooms is project-based assessments.  They take many different forms, but the bottom line is that in most instances they give students a better chance to demonstrate what they have learned.  There is a purpose to traditional pencil and paper tests, but it is just one type of measure and some kids just don’t do well with that kind of assessment.

However, what really struck me was the reason that was given for being upset about the number of projects their child had to do: the burden on the parents!  This brought up a whole new set of issues that started running through my mind.  How is this a burden on the parents?  Are they doing the projects?  Are they writing the papers?  Do their kids stay up later at night working on a project than they do studying for a test?  Are the students grouchier working on a project than when they have to take a test?  The reality is that a child must be responsible for his or her education.  It is my opinion that teachers in our school are working hard to integrate better methods of instruction that lead to better learning.  We aren’t there yet, but we are getting closer.  At the same time, I have always said, learning is a partnership and if students do not own it, then they are not going to learn.  If there is a concern about too many projects, the reality is that this type of learning and assessment is only going to become more common.  

Thoughts on the Class of 2013

Fortunately for everyone that attends our annual graduation ceremony, I have established the goal of completing the ceremony in an hour or less.  This year we just came in under that self-imposed deadline, and in future years with more graduates, we will have to be a little more efficient if we are to get it done.  When I say fortunate what I mean is because of this goal, I really work had to keep my remarks very brief, which for those of you that have taken the opportunity to talk to me, know that it is very difficult for me to be brief any time I am talking!  So as not to take a whole lot of time standing up there and risking that some in the audience will nod off, I set a limit to the length of my remarks based upon how much I can type on the script in 16-point font.  What is frustrating when I take on this task really came to a head this year as there was a lot more that I wanted to say about the Class of 2013 than I was able to in the time allotted.  So, I will do some of that now.

For those of you at our commencement ceremony, you will remember that my general theme was “talent.”  This group of graduates is perhaps one of the most talented classes of students that I have had the opportunity to work with in my years as an administrator.  I can think of a class of students when I was a teacher somewhere around twenty-five years ago that had tremendous talent as well, and as the years have gone by, many of them have done tremendous things.  This group reminds me a bit of them, and thus I have tremendous hope for them.  I generally end my remarks at graduation with a challenge to leave a positive mark on the world, and I honestly believe that each student can do that.  Basically, I believe we can all have a positive impact on others, and while one of these kids may not come up with the next Facebook or Twitter, there is no question that they can make life better for other people. 

When I speak publicly, I learned a long time ago that when you list names, you run a huge risk of leaving people out.  My last year as a teacher at Galva-Holstein I was asked to give the commencement address and I decided that I was going to mention every graduate in the speech.  I went over that speech twenty times and had a list of the graduates right next to me, checking names off.  And dang it if I didn’t miss one!  Actually, his name was in the speech, I just skipped over it when I was reading it.  I did feel bad about that, so I hesitate to try and include lists of people when I put something out to the public for fear of leaving someone out.  It is for that reason that I was somewhat vague in my references with the speech and am so here as well.  However, these kids really do exist!

As we work with a class of students at high school, they generally take on some characteristics as they come through.  Some come in with “reputations,” which generally change as they work their way through high school, due mostly to maturity and the inevitable changes that adolescents go through.  The Class of 2013 was somewhat non-descript when they arrived at NFHS.  I remember a couple of loud, funny young men that stumbled their way through that awkward first year, but for the most part, as a class there was a not a lot that they did that drew attention to them.  But, as they grew up, people really started to take notice!

I spoke of writers, musicians, and performers when I spoke at graduation, and in my mind, that is where this group starts.  I recall sitting with a couple of them listening to them read some of what they had written and was truly moved by their words and ideas.  Writing is tough!  Yet with some of our students in this class, they make it look easy.  Another part of writing is that you want to get it right when the public is going to read it.  When you write about other people, you have a responsibility to the subject(s) to tell their story, which is something that members of this class have done as well as can be seen in publications with our student’s work.

On stage these kids have excelled!  Whether it is singing, playing, acting, or just “yucking-it-up,” we have had the opportunity to be truly entertained.  It pains me that in this day of cable television and the Internet that we can’t seem to get anyone other than parents and grandparents to come to a program at school, so what these kids have done is really somewhat of a secret.  I guarantee that for your entertainment dollar, folks who have come to watch the performances at the high school the past four years have gotten a lot more of a return than what others who have stayed home in front of a screen have received.  Hey, I am a TV fanatic, and yet there has not been one time that I walked out of the PAC disappointed by what I saw and heard.  Plus, I can watch my favorite shows on Hulu the next day. 

I’ve wandered off my intended path, which is another reason to limit my time, so back to the point!  What is a little frustrating to me is that it does not appear that at this point when I have inquired that many of these kids are going to pursue these areas where they have demonstrated so much talent.  Yes, a couple of them look like they are headed in the direction of writing and communications, and I don’t have a problem with others playing it safe or having a fall back plan.  I certainly get it.  I also know that things change, and there is that saying that comes up time and again that people need to find out what they are passionate about and do it.  That way you never have to “work” a day in your life because you love what you are doing.  Because many of us have loved what these kids have done the past four years, I hope that at least for a few of them the passion will continue to burn and they keep doing it!

School vs. Club: Where Do Sports Belong?

The game is over coached, and under taught.  That was the message from Coni Yori, the head women’s basketball coach at the University of Nebraska in an article I read about the current state of young basketball players.  It accompanied an interview her colleague on the men’s side at the university, Tim Miles, who bemoans the fact that so much time is spent playing games in the summer on AAU teams with little if any attention paid to the developing the fundamental skills of the game.  Along with Rick Pitino, coach of this year’s NCAA champion Louisville Cardinals, who says the game suffers because of the lack of fundamentals, Miles also points to a decrease in scoring in the college game because players simply don’t have the skills to score.

Coach Yori, who may be familiar with some of you “hard core” Iowa girl’s basketball fans because of her amazing career as a player at Ankeny High School a number of years ago, comments about a conversation she had with a young camper who shared that she had played 100 basketball games that summer and according to Yori, didn’t think she really needed to work on her individual skills.  She described her as “a kid playing all of these games and basically thinking she has it all figured out.”  Yori scored 3,068 points in her star-studded career in high school, and only played 25 games in a calendar year, all of them with her high school team because there were no club or travel teams.

We live in a sports obsessed society right now, and it only seems to becoming more so when one hears about the billions of dollars that are being poured into various events.  At one point I thought that perhaps it would come around and common sense would come into play, particularly in college athletics, but that does not seem to be the case.  There is simply too much money.  There are a number of things I do not like about high school athletics, but overall, I still believe that it is the best place for young people to get the experience of playing these games.  Even though there have been changes over the years, there are still strong structures in place and high standards in regard to coaching qualifications and expectations.

As a family we have also been involved in the club, travel, or select world of sports.  I do see a lot of positives out there for this kind of experience.  In fact, I believe that there are some aspects that far exceed scholastic sports.  However, I also see first-hand what Miles and Yori are saying.  Now I will say that there are some fundamental differences between the sports, as the two that my kids have played – softball and soccer – tend to be those “suburban” sports where private instruction accompanies membership on a team.  That is different from a lot of the AAU and club basketball programs out there that exploit poor kids from inner cities, usually for the personal gain of the coaches.   However, there is a common theme with these programs and that is the fact that nearly all of the players are playing for themselves, not team, or like scholastic sports, the school.  Their motivations are different.  They want the scholarship and to do that, they have to stand out as an individual.  And to do that, they often ignore some of the fundamentals of the game.

What we have today is a choice.  With the exception of football, a club alternative exists for every sport we offer in high school.  There are already kids in Iowa that choose to play club for a number of reasons, and opt to not play for their high school team.  We see it in soccer and softball right now.  But I think there is something to read between the lines with both Coach Yori and Coach Miles, and that is the fact that they would rather work with the high school coaches and believe that at that level, education does take place.  Not only teaching on the basketball court, but also in the classroom.  Sports in our schools are an extension of the classroom, and it is for that reason that we really need to keep them in proper perspective.

Small Town Success Story

A while back I had a conversation with Coach Guyer, who stopped in to let me know that North Fayette alum and Warburg All-American, John Helgerson had qualified to participate in the Olympic wresting trials in Iowa City.  I have only been introduced to Helgerson and shook his hand, but I have heard a number of people talk very highly of him since I arrived nearly four years ago.  Without knowing a lot about the history of our area, I wonder how many people from our community have had opportunity to reach the pinnacle of their chosen field?  Helgerson did not make the Olympic team, but he was in that final one or two percent that had a chance.  If you ask me, that is a pretty exclusive club and when you think about it, according to the last census, there are 313,914,040 people in the United States, so the fact that he was one of eight that even had a chance to make the team, that certainly puts him at the very top of peak!

I mention this because there seems to be an inferiority complex among many folks who grow up in a small town.  You often hear someone in less than a proud manner say in a conversation, “I grew up in a small town.”  One doesn’t need to have an advanced degree in mathematics to figure out that where there are larger concentrations of people, there is a greater likelihood that more people will excel.  It’s in the numbers.  I read a story recently about the number of outstanding professional basketball players who grew up in Brooklyn, New York.   Brooklyn is one of the boroughs of New York City and holds a little over 30% of the cities population.  In the 2010 census there were just fewer than 2.6 million Brooklynites.  Iowa has a population of a bit over 3 million.  Now I am not as much of an aficionado of basketball as I am other sports, but I wonder over time how our state compares to Brooklyn in terms of players who have done well in the NBA.  Fred Hoiberg, Raef Lafrentz, Kirk Heinrich, Nick Collison are four names that come to mind and it appears as if Harrison Barnes and Doug McDermott have careers at that level in front of them.  So maybe being from a small town doesn’t make it a long shot.

To go further with this, many of us are aware of the fact that at one time in the past ten years or so, four men who graduated from Aplington-Parkersburg were playing at the same time in the NFL.  In fact, per capita, A-P was producing more professional football players than any other high school in the country.  Take that Texas high school football!  That goes to show that the small town kid can make it to the top level of a given field!

So why do I bring this up?  One of the things that I have stated a time or two in the past year as we have moved forward into the whole grade sharing agreement is that where a person lives should not impact the opportunities they have in life.  In some respects being in the right place at the right time is a definite advantage.  Not too many Iowans are going to become professional surfers.  But, over the long haul, growing up in a small town should not impede goals and aspirations.  The key in the education area is that you have to have resources and opportunity, and that is why I was 100% on board with sharing from the first day it was mentioned.  An example that I shared with some folks is with a question: why should students at West Des Moines Valley have a choice of English classes when they are juniors and seniors and our students don’t?  There is a critical mass that provides opportunity, and with what we are planning to have in place next year, we are taking advantage of that.  I want to make sure that our students have what they need to move toward that dream or goal.

John Helgerson didn’t attend a big school.  He graduated from North Fayette with a class just a little bigger than the ones that are going through our high school right now.  He had the opportunity to wrestle in high school and he parlayed that into a chance to wrestle in college.  Through hard work and perseverance, he qualified for the Olympic Trials.  If anyone ever told him that he couldn’t get there because he was from a small town, he ignored them.  I would like to think that we have students in our school now that have aspirations and dreams, and with John Helgerson as an example, hopefully it doesn’t matter that they are from a small town.