Let ‘em Play
Alright, full disclosure, Jake Hatlin once roamed up and down the UIL playing fields in high school (many…many moons ago). I never scored 4 touchdowns in one game like the famous Al Bundy, but I saw my fair share of success on both the football field and elsewhere. So when I came across this article in the Austin American Statesman, it both sent me back to the Glory Days and sparked my interest as a person who greatly values the UIL experience.
I have to admit that I was not aware that the Lege’s recently passed curriculum guidelines was going to put athletic participants in academic jeopardy. Thankfully, though, others are keeping a watchful eye and Brenhan coach Craig Angew spotted where the 4 x 4 plan (mandated 4 years of the 4 core classes) could prove to be a hurdle for those students who involve themselves in athletic competition.
From the article itself:
In all, the number of credits needed to get a diploma will increase from 24 to 26 starting with 2011 graduates.
Agnew said the new standards allow students to get four years of credit for activities such as band, choir, dance team, theater and Junior ROTC but not football, basketball, baseball and other sports.
“This is discriminatory against athletics and student athletes,” Agnew told the board in a letter.
In short, coach Agnew is arguing that only allowing 4 year athletes 2 years worth of credit for their athletic participation will make it harder for athletes to graduate under the new guidelines, and thus act as a disincentive for students to play sports. Frankly, I could not agree more in his sense of the harm that this could bring to student athletes’ overall high school betterment.
I went through public high school as a four year athlete, and I enjoyed every minute of it (except for when the Seniors crammed me into a locker). My experiences in organized athletics afforded me as much knowledge about what it took to succeed in life as the classroom did, bottom line. Academic instruction in fine and necessary, but academic instruction teaches the fundamentals of an education whereas UIL activities build on that knowledge by teaching a person how to take those fundamentals and put them to work in real world scenarios.
Perhaps I’m going off the deep end here (after all, it is late and I have had a cocktail or two), but I honestly think that UIL participation has put me in a greater place in life. That is because athletic competition taught me valuable lessons that the classroom couldn’t. Such as: leadership, team work, goal attainment, responsibility, what it means to be held accountable, how to overcome adversity, and many more. Athletics gives young children who are trying to find their place in the world a sense of direction, a sense of discipline, and most importantly, a sense of purpose.
As a student, I remember what came of my peers who chose to not involve themselves in athletic activities. I have seen the paths that their lives have taken. While some of them have found success in their endeavors, I know that - on the whole - my path and the guidance I received as a young man who engaged himself in team sports has put me in a better position to succeed where some of my peers have faltered.
If the 4 x 4 rule is in fact a hurdle for student athletes, then it needs to be addressed. We need to be giving students every ample opportunity to further round their education experiences by taking their activities beyond the classrooms and into constructive outside endeavors.
That’s how you really get an education. That’s how you really better yourself.
Ah, the glory days, what a wonderful time they were. Now if only I could pin point exactly what went wrong beyond that. After all, lets be real here, I grew up to be a blogger.