Loyality to your Team

My uncle, a former high school teacher, is known to say, “When I become King . . . . ,“ followed by some edict that could not be enforced because of our constitutional rights. Most of the time he is correct concerning the problem, but he suggests an unworkable solution. I have my own list of things I would do if I were King, and on the top of that list is getting rid of high school athletics.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not against children taking part in sports activities. I am opposed to the school being responsible for their organization and funding. Especially in these cash strapped times, money spent to pay a coach should be redirected to seeing that the advanced language teacher isn’t laid off or the Biology class size doesn’t rise to 40 in order to save money. Most serious high school athletes play club sports outside of school, so why duplicate costs by allowing schools to run programs as well.
Some would argue that club sports are expensive and that would price many deserving athletes out of the market. Schools, they would argue, allow everyone to take part in organized athletic activities at little or no cost to the parent. I would argue in response that they are wrong. Many club teams charge huge fees to take part, as high as $5000+ for some elite teams. When my daughter played club volleyball we paid about $1200 for the season, plus the cost of equipment and expenses when the team traveled out of town. At the time I was surprised to find out that some of the girls on her team paid nothing. These young women were extremely talented and were recruited by numerous teams, having all fees waived if they agreed to play for the club. The cost of this “scholarship” was paid for by the others who, because they lacked exceptional talent, had to pay to play. If your child has exceptional talent he or she can play for a club team at no cost to you; if not, try your local park district, or pay to join a club. Clubs recruit paying players by claiming that they will improve the child’s skills; while in reality they take the money and give special treatment and playing time to the elite members of the team.
My interest in writing about this topic today is because of a conversation I had with a student last week. The girl informed me that she would not be in school Friday because she was leaving town for a volleyball tournament. I asked which team she played for and we talked for about five minutes about her upcoming tournaments. I found out that the big national qualifying tournament was going to be on the weekend of Prom, and she expressed sadness that she would have to miss the dance because of her commitment to the team. I praised her for her loyalty to the club and asked if the team would be as loyal to her. She looked puzzled and asked what I meant. “Suppose a new girl moved into the area and joined the team” I asked, “and suppose she was a better player that you, or the coach thought she might be a better player, would you lose your starting position to her?” She agreed that she would lose her position if that happened. “That wouldn’t be very loyal to you would it?” I asked. She didn’t answer, but looked confused and uncomfortable. “Why would you be more loyal to the club than it would be to you?” were my final words to her before she made her way off to lunch.
If you go away with nothing else from this, remember that any coach on any level is only concerned with winning. Their loyalty to a player is based only on what that player can do for them, and lasts only as long as nobody else comes along who can do it better.

thx 4 txtN M abt yr prob . Ill gt bac TU soon

Recently my daughter convinced me that texting would be a good idea. I would regularly call her on the cell phone to see what was going on, only to have her complain that I was interrupting whatever she was doing. She explained to me that expecting people to answer their phone every time it rings was unreasonable; adding that many times she is busy. She suggested that I text instead and she would reply when she had time. Old people, like me, have trouble understanding youth and their slavery to new technology. I still like to talk to people from time to time; and besides, my fingers are too big to text easily.

I agreed to text her when I just wanted to find out what was going on, trying out my new skill on New Years Eve at about 11:45. She was out with friends at a party and I texted her a “happy new year” message instead of calling like usual. Within five minutes she replied, returning the greeting and letting me know that her girlfriends also sent their regards. We now text regularly, unless it is important enough to require a conversation; and I have realized how effective and convenient this method of communication can be, especially when I don’t want to actually speak to someone.

I have known for many years that email is an effective way to contact parents. Just like most teachers, I dislike having to talk to parents. Email is a way to send and receive information without having to actually have a conversation. In the old days, when a student misbehaved in class, I would have to contact the parent by phone to discuss the problem. Many times this would take several days as we played phone tag with each other. When we finally did connect, built up frustration would often make our contact less than satisfactory. Now I just email, and wait for a reply. When I hear back from them my rule is not to reply for at least an hour, the cooling off period being an effective way to keep the “conversation” civil. It has worked quite well so far for me.

Last semester I attended a conference on using the internet in the classroom. One of the topics was using “wikis” with students. I have never used one, but a wiki appears to be a web page where students can collaborate on an assignment without being physically together. The last NSTA newsletter gave examples of how actual teachers use this technology in their classrooms. I am skeptical. A woman at the conference told the presenter that she was overworked already, and didn’t need another thing to do every day; resulting in agreement among the rest of us. I have always felt that the best way to solve problems collaboratively was to sit around a table together and work things out, face-to-face. Why students, who are physically together in the school building every day, would need to wait until they are home and apart to work “together” on a project seems to be ass-backwards; but apparently I am just another old guy who isn’t “with it.”

I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. Two days ago I texted the father of one of my tutoring students’ letting him knows that he forgot to leave me a check for the last session. I reminded him when I was coming next and let him know how much to make the check out for. It was waiting for me at my next visit, and I never had to have an awkward conversation with him about the problem, or for that matter even see him. For better or worse, technology is here to stay.

Alliance for Climate Education

Last Wednesday I got a message from a school administrator on the east coast concerning the Alliance on Climate Education (ACE). ACE had proposed to do a presentation for their students and the administrator, being responsible, checked their web site and found that they had us listed as a school that had hosted them before. She was interested in finding out how I felt about the ACE presentation before she committed to them. Below is the text of my email to her…

We had the Alliance on Climate Education present in the fall. Our science staff is split on their feelings. Some of my teachers feel it was an excellent presentation and would take their classes again. Several others feel (like I do) that the presentation was very light on science and very heavy on propaganda. While I would not oppose them returning, I would not be bringing my classes to see the presentation.

Specifically, I was disturbed by the speakers request that our students get their cell phones out and send a text. I do not recall the reason he gave, but it was clear he was attempting to generate a "call list" that could be accessed later. I believe that he intended, later, to contact everyone on the list and ask them to contact government officials, industry, the media .....in order to influence their actions. I am very non-political, and this tactic bothers me to no end--they are children. After the first period presentation I warned two other classes I was bringing not to send the text when asked, and decided not to bring my Advanced Placement students, feeling it would be a waste of their time.

On the other hand our students enjoyed the presentation--it was well done and very professional. It might be more appropriate for a "Social Justice" class than a "science class." I hope this helps. If you have any other questions feel free to reply.


She got back to me about 30 minutes later with this reply . . . .

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my inquiry. I agree with your feelings about putting students in a situation where they might be used by an organization. This information is very helpful to us and I will share it with our teachers.
Best regards,

Tens of thousands of children, poised to become part of the “solution” to the environmental crisis when contacted to do so is a powerful tool for those who want to influence the debate. I have no feelings one way or the other whether they allow ACE to present at their school. I do though have feelings about the insanity surrounding the current debate on global warming, and the immoral tactics employed by both sides. The insanity is so deep-seated that anyone who even suggests that there is a debate will be angrily denounced by both sides as a dangerous extremist, each side insisting that the evidence is overwhelming for their point of view. The ACE presentation our students were exposed to treated the “fact” of global warming as so undeniable that someone would have to be a very bad person, stupid, or possibly a Republican to deny it. I have seen presentations by the other side as well, and they are equally loathsome.
How do I feel? I don’t know. The debate has been so corrupted by lying and exaggeration on both sides that even someone like me, who was trained in science, doesn’t know who to believe. Falsifying data and intentionally instilling panic in the populace can’t be excused because you had some higher purpose. The politicians and scientists involved in this circus have no one to blame but themselves. To paraphrase; the pursuit of money is the root of all evil, and, no doubt, whoever is successful will make a fortune. And in either case, that fortune will come out of your pocket and mine.

The Permanent Solution to a Temporary Problem.

In thirty five years of teaching at my present school I have unhappily experienced the tragic death of students on several occasions. Two young men died at athletic events; both times because of an unknown heart condition. Back when I taught Biology, I lost a student to a severe brain infection. There have been numerous car accidents that unfortunately took young people’s lives. To date, no student has been murdered. I don’t know the exact number, but I would estimate the total in 35 years as around 20.

The death rate among people 15-24 is about 0.08% per year, about 15% of those are suicides. Our average student population predicts we should experience about 1 death a year, and we are a little below that number. These statistics do not dull the hurt of any single incidence, especially when the young man involved is your former student.

Last week at school we were in crisis mode because of the suicide of one of our seniors. The principal sent out a group voice message to all faculty members last Sunday night announcing the tragedy; and the next morning we had a meeting before school to apprise us of the facts, as they were known at the time, of the incident. My freshmen and sophomores were relatively unaffected by the news, very few showing any signs of grief. Most of them did not even know the young man. Many of the staff, including the principal, were visibly shaken, including one of his present teachers who could not stop crying. For me, it was difficult to get through first several periods as he was my student two years before. I remember him as a quiet, but gentle young man. He was a very good student, an athlete, and had many friends. He was dating a young lady at that time who I also had in class. Apparently, they had been together for almost three years before they broke up last year, remaining friends. I passed her in the halls just after the faculty meeting and, surrounded by friends, she was visibly sobbing. Word has it that he had been going out with another young lady and they recently broke it off. It would be easy to assume that this might have been the trigger that pushed him over the edge.
Not getting into too many details, he shot himself. The family is rumored to have several guns in the house and the word is that he shot himself with his own weapon. Over fifty percent of teen suicides used a gun—80% of those are males. Information also has surfaced that he was taking “something” for some unspecified “problem” and had recently gone off his meds. The combination of an untreated emotional/physiological problem with access to guns is a prescription for disaster.

Personally, I find it difficult to believe that he shot himself. I still suspect that it was an accident, thought everybody else thinks I am completely wrong. I can’t imagine how devastating this has been for his parents. As a parent myself it fills me with fear and panic—it could happen to anybody. At the wake, the line of students and parents was out the door; some reporting a wait in line of 40 minutes. The funeral at a local Parish filled the church to capacity with his grieving classmates, teachers, and administrators from school.

Our school community has always rallied to the challenge presented by a tragedy. In the week after this heartbreak almost twenty students came forward to report their concerns for a friend who they feared might be on a similar path. Each of these students were seen with their parents in order to inform them of the concerns and offer assistance getting help if it was deemed necessary. I hope I never have to see this happen again.