Twenty Years Ago: November 2003

 I must have had a cold for all of 2003!  November in 2003 was rainy and my son had a cold, too. While later in his life, I would wish for rain to cancel baseball games, in 2003, I dreaded rain because it did not cancel his soccer games. Can you see how much I loved sitting outside watching my children’s sports? 

My elder child was trying to battle her way into the school’s gifted program. She was upset that she was not selected and I had to hide my relief, “There are so many problems with that program. If she was selected there would be more issues than if she was not. Let her do her “gifted” thing in high school. I do not see that those who have been TAP’d have any advantage over those who do not. Often, they are more arrogant and more concerned with grades. Some are brighter, most are not. This is a blessing in disguise.” Of course, my child did not agree – until she got herself into the program in middle school. Then she understood what I was talking about. Oh, well. 

In November of 2003, I was phenomenally busy, “I am fighting the overwhelmed feeling. This weekend, I’ll take my Sunday School class to Willowcreek. On Monday, I’ll get essays. I need to get a Shabbat service ready for 12/5. Mango Street and the Book Circle unit are coming up and I don’t feel like either is fully developed. I am feeling like a ton is on the horizon. My grades are done, the parent notices are due. Get me to the end of the year.” 

I was also preparing our yearly holiday card. Prior to digital photography, getting a good picture could take months: shoot a roll or two, have it developed, reject the results, rinse and repeat. Fortunately, in 2003, I had my first digital camera. However, my three editors/critics could be very demanding; they wanted only their finest images on our yearly greeting card. It took a while to come to an agreement. 

Like this year, November meant a Saturday at Windycon. Since I was preparing to officiate at a bat mitzvah, I was debating whether to see one more mitzvah on a Saturday or travel to the convention. I made the healthy choice and gave myself a wonderful Saturday of celebrating science fiction and fandom. 

It was in 2003 that I integrated my Sunday School curriculum. In 2001, I taught comparative Judaism and in 2002, I taught comparative everything else. Why it wasn’t clear to me that was out of balance then, I am not sure. Perhaps because I was out of balance, too. So, I reorganized religions by theme and philosophy, had five field trips per year, and acknowledged that, since my students were going to many of their friends’ mitvzahs, we didn’t need to go to Reform and Conservative services. They were getting more than enough of those. 

In November 2003, I took my Sunday School class for our first trip to the megachurch in Barrington, Willow Creek. It was a foundational experience for them – and for me. We have been going back to Willow Creek every other year since then. 

The dog’s issues amped up in November. It was clear that the dog was now blind. I joked, “We have decided that we need to hire a seeing-eye person for the blind dog. Well, not really, but poor PJ is really struggling and it will be a few weeks at least until he gets better, if he gets better. It is really tough.”

I took my new Humanities class on a field trip to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. This raised my level of busyness to a brand-new pitch, “Teach until afternoon, meet with the team, come home, go back for the faculty meeting, come home for dinner and give PJ his meds and then go back for the field trip. I’ll be home again around midnight! But it will be a good day, even if it is an exhausting one.” My optimism must have substituted for my lack of sleep. 

If I was questioning the value and manner of grading my own students, the grades my children were earning furthered that process, “Over and over, I question the value of these report cards. In the short story we discussed in Power Reading today, ‘Tom Edison’s Shaggy Dog,’ Edison invents an intelligence analyzer and predicts that we will be able to ‘grade people as easily as we grade oranges.’ Isn’t that what it is all about? I read my Humanities kids’ self-evaluations. One thing that came up a few times was their resistance to our grading system. Kids want to be graded. What a shame.” 

It is interesting to look back twenty years and see who was important in our lives then and now – and who we no longer see. We used to spend a great deal of time with neighbors who had kids the same age as our children. There were several families with whom we had both family and couple dates. We don’t see any of them anymore. However, there are folks with whom we were close that we see regularly. Yes, there is a message there: relationships based entirely on the kids didn’t last.

So, teaching, Sunday School, running Shabbat services, getting ready for a Bat Mitzvah, the neighborhood homeowner association (the annual meeting had to be planned), planning winter and spring break travel, taking care of a sick and blind dog, and the kids’ activities made November of 2003 a very long month. I am tired just writing that list. Oh! I noted that I joined the school crest committee at school. Did I ever say, “NO?” 

Reading For Treasure: Education Issues

Reading for Treasure is my list of articles that are worth your attention. Click here for an introduction!

Earlier this month, I spent two days back at school working with teachers and librarians and talking to kids about books. It was wonderful, rejuvenating, and exhausting! One of the reasons I started this list of articles was I didn’t want to keep sending my not-yet-retired colleagues articles that I thought they would find interesting or useful. So I post them here instead. My mind is on all the different aspects of education: grading, social and emotional health, classroom practices, athletics, safety, and many other topics. Since my list is long this month, I am limiting myself to a very short description of each article.  

First, some articles that focus on teaching and the teacher experience: 

“I No Longer Grade My Students’ Work — And I Wish I Had Stopped Sooner” in Blavity. “I’ve been teaching college English for more than 30 years. Four years ago, I stopped putting grades on written work, and it has transformed my teaching and my students’ learning. My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner.” 

“The Case Against Zeros in Grading” in Edutopia. I am shocked that some teachers still need to hear this argument. This article and the accompanying video make it clear: zeros demotivate students and count more than their successes! 

“Why So Many Teachers Are Leaving, and Why Others Stay” in Cult of Pedagogy.. Jennifer Gonzalez shares eight teachers’ stories: four who are leaving and four who are not. These are critically important voices that need to be heard.  

“Stress, Hypervigilance, and Decision Fatigue: Teaching During Omicron And, no, “self care” isn’t the answer” in Education Week. Katy Faber paints a vivid picture of what it is like to teach during this difficult time in America. 

"Why is America the Only Country in the World With Regular School Shootings?" in Eudaimonia and Co via Medium. Umair Haque has gone to school all over the world and shares how American schools are horribly unique. The issues we are having are not functions of adolescent development but of American culture. 

"Pandemic Shadow Syllabus" in Sonya Hubor's blog. This is a short and wonderful teacher struggling with the pandemic point of view piece. Teachers – if you read only one of these, let it be this one. 

A few articles that deal with education’s social context: 

“Young people need power.' Southern students on safety, accountability, and what they need from adults” in Scalawag.  This is a series of statements from young people about what it is like to be in school now. Read what the kids say about their experiences! 

"Is Your Child Too Popular for Their Own Good?" in Lifehaker. While some parents are clueless and others are ruthless, there are many kinds of popular in school and this article explores what some studies say about how popularity in middle and high school translates into adulthood. 

“OP-ED: When It Comes To Book Bans, America Could Learn From Apartheid South Africa” in NewsOne. The comparison is eerie and frightening – and right on the money: book challenges in America today are frighteningly similar to those in South Africa during Apartheid. 

Two pieces that focus on equity in college admissions from The Atlantic: 

"College Admissions Are Still Unfair" Colleges are eliminating legacy admissions, but this will not make things much better. At Amherst, there is a greater percentage of white athletes than in the general student body – and many play sports like crew and squash. Sounds like white affirmative action to me. 

"Colleges Can Fix the Broken Admissions Process They Created" This is a great list of ways colleges could improve the admission process to benefit everyone! 

Two very different focuses on kids and youth sports: 

“Do youth sports really build character? What kids gain from sports depends on adults”  in KQED Mindshift. The benefits of sports participation for kids are entirely dependent on coaches and contexts. This article spells out clearly the nature of adult’s influence, for better or worse, on children. 

“Guys, I Swear I’m Only Transitioning So I Can Cheat at Girls’ Sports” in McSweeny's. This older McSweeny’s satire makes the point well: the controversy over trans students in sports is an invented issue that fans the flames of hate at the expense of kids who really need to be part of the team!  

I am currently reading House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds 

My Ballpark Experience

Recently, I attended three professional baseball games. That is more baseball for me than I have experienced since my child played for the high school. That child is the reason I was broiling at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. He was hired to work for the Reds for the summer and my wife and I had come to spend a weekend visiting him – and to watch the Reds play the Chicago Cubs. 

Disclaimer: I have never been a sports fan or a sports player. I haven’t been much of any kind of game player. While I can be quite competitive, it was more about achievements in other areas than athletics. Everyone else in my family is a sports person, so I have experienced tennis, volleyball, basketball, and baseball far more than I would choose if it hadn’t been important to people I love. I truly never really cared about who won or lost, except that I knew that the people I lived with would be happier if their teams prevailed. So I fought my instincts and cheered – quietly.

I am not sure how long it has been since I have been to a professional baseball game. The last time I remember going was taking my son and his friends to Wrigley Field to celebrate his birthday eight years ago. So I wasn’t fully prepared for my experience.

We arrived a little more than an hour before the game was scheduled to start for our first game. We went directly to our seats and sat down and started to sweat profusely. The field was a patchwork of billboards and electric signs. There were two enormous jumbotrons which were framed by dozens of smaller signs, some of which were electronic and others looked like billboards. There was preparatory activity on the field, but that was very far away.

Everything at the ballpark has a sponsor. Everything is a commercial. Every announcement was brought to me by someone wanting to sell me something. Much of the game was sponsored. Strikeouts were sponsored. Insurance companies sponsored insurance runs. Although the players’ uniforms did not have commercial logos on them, everything else did!

The ballgame experience was ADD writ large. If I didn’t want to watch the game, I could watch all the activity on the two big screens or the smaller screens. The big screens were often broken into smaller segments that displayed statistics, lists, photographs, logos, and smaller moving images. They were like my home computer screen with many tabs and windows open.

Before the game and in breaks throughout it, there were little ceremonies and events. At each of the games, the first pitch happened twice. Someone else brought out the official ball. They honored veterans, first responders, recently deceased benefactors, and charitable organizations. They gave awards. They asked the fans to donate to causes. Before and during each game, many people were honored for many reasons.

The ballgame experience is also steeped in tradition and nostalgia. The ballpark was celebrating the 150^th anniversary of the team. There were people dressed in “retro” uniforms and a great deal was made of the history of the team. The Hall of Fame was next door, too. The singing of the national anthem was also very important. Everyone stands up, but no one sings except the singer. They even released an eagle, who flew from the bleachers to a trainer by the pitcher’s mound!

Baseball moves slowly. It takes the pitcher a while to get ready for each batter. It takes each batter a while to come out from the dugout and stand in front of the plate. Many of the batters don’t stand there long but need to take short breaks between each pitch. Things inch along. But the music fills every gap. There is an organ that plays a variety of involvement music. Much of the organ music seems designed to keep me engaged. The music asks me to clap, yell “charge,” snap my fingers, or sing along. Sometimes the lyrics are on the screen and it the stadium becomes one big karaoke.

There is also recorded music. Almost all of it is from my childhood. While there was some use of more contemporary music, it had a very different place. Beach Boys hits, “Kodachrome,” “We Will Rock You,” and even some movie themes would play almost as often we would hear the organ. Sometimes, it was just the recording of hands clapping the open rhythm from “Centerfield” or the Bay City Rollers’ “Saturday Night.”

The screens did show the action, replays, and frequently panned the crowd. There were a series of  “cams” throughout the game. I knew about the kiss cam. Audience members saw themselves on the big screens, expressed their surprise and perhaps delight at being the center of attention for a few seconds and then gave some a big kiss. All of these couples were typical heteronormative couples. I saw no same-sex kisses on the kiss cam. There were other cams, too. There was a chicken dance cam, a floss cam, a “nugget” cam (children) and a few others that confused me. There were a lot of times when the people on the screen just waved or tried to take photos of themselves on the jumbotron.

Often the people on the screen were children. Sometimes, the children got to say, “play ball” or somehow participate in the game in some superficial way. Several times, a broadcaster would have a fan on the screen play a game. There were always prizes for these games that the fans would win regardless of their success. There was a matching game that the audience could play along with. Sometimes the games on the screen were for all of us: trivia, an odd form of shell game, and identifying famous players.

The technical skill involved in all the graphics and camera and high tech entertain was very impressive. Things moved to the music, raced across the park, dazzled, and amazed! Twice each game, a supped up golf cart came out and shot little toy baseballs into the stands as if from an automatic machine gun revolving around the top of the cart. There were smoke and sound and the cart was decked out like a monster. Everyone jumped to get these little padded baseballs. One even fell next to us and my wife gave it to the little boy sitting near us who looked like he might have hopped over the railing to get it!

And there is the food. Everyone is eating and drinking all the time. There are peanut shells all over the ground, which is already sticky with the drippings of the beer, pop, and melted ice cream. People come up the aisles to sell pretzels the size of dinner plates, beer, pop, or other goodies. Inside the ballpark is a “concourse” that looks like the food court of a huge shopping mall. The lines are long and the prices are high and people are stuffing their faces with pork, hot dogs, barbeque, pizza, nachos, sweets, and tons of other fattening foods. In fact, unlike other entertainment events, people are constantly leaving their seats and returning with food. There was no moment where everyone was seated and looking at the game. This was not like any theater. There were even lines to get to the food stalls as the game finished.

The players themselves figure strongly into the flavor of the park. They are announced multiple times. The Cubs, who were the visiting team, are featured with simple photos and lists of statistics. The Reds, however, each have a theme song and a video each time their name is mentioned. Their music was often recent and reflective of their ethnic heritage. I wondered if the player himself picked this music.

The people around us were very involved in the game. They yelled and screamed about their favorite players. They were very free with their opinions about everything from the umpires to the uniforms to each other. I felt like I was sitting in an episode of “Rosanne.” When I photographed my wife from a far distance, the people around here were far more interested in what she was texted on her phone than the game!

There were three mascots who were often on the field. They might race or dance and interact with people. They were around the park as well and people were eager to be photographed with them. There was a lot of photography, but very little of it seemed aimed at the game itself.

My son spent much of his time in what was called the Fanzone. This was a place where fans, primarily under the age of ten, could participate more actively in baseball activities. There was a whiffle ball field, a playground, batting cages, a slide, a virtual reality simulator, and several carnival-like booths where you win prizes for making a basket or throwing a ball through a hole or knocking something over.

Somewhere in all this was a baseball game.

Winning Plays

I am not a sports person. As a child, my athletic experiences were painful, humiliating, and drenched in sweat. However, I married a coach and an athlete and, unsurprisingly, our children have been involved in performing arts and athletics. When my younger child was waffling about soccer, I even became a coach for a few seasons.

There is a stark difference in the quality of my children’s experiences in theatre and sports. With few exceptions, my children’s experience on high school teams has been uneven and often frustrating and painful. They have loved their time working on plays and musicals. The key difference is the adults in charge. Whether it is a play, music ensemble, or athletic team, there are a few critical strategies that “coaches” can take so it is a healthy and positive experience for all kids.  

Be inclusive: The kids in the theatre are molded into a company. Every student has a job and is actively involved - even if a stagehand only places a prop or a “spear carrier” says only, “dinner is served.” If a student is chosen to be on the team, that student must do more than practice. While I have some qualms with the value, I understand that, at the varsity level, high school sports are about winning. For other levels, inclusion, the development of skills, and time on the field must be valued at least as much as victory. 

Build community: The track team at our school is remarkably close. Kids in theatre productions make new friends that extend beyond the boundaries of the show. There is a reason for this. The adults in charge help kids develop deep and meaningful relationships with each other. To them, kids are far more than chess pieces in a game. They create experiences in rehearsal and practice that allow kids to go beyond the superficial and break down “clique” barriers. That has never happened for my children on their teams and has been a consistent high spot in their experiences on stage.

Treat kids with respect and caring: Both of my kids believed that their coaches didn’t really care about them. With only one exception, my children neither liked their coaches nor thought that their coaches liked them. Their relationship was strictly business. In one case, my child feared her coach. My children cherish their relationships with the adults in theatre. Community is built on relationships. In theatre, kids get the message that their participation matters. The technical director and stage director get to know kids. They learn who they are beyond the show. This takes time, but more importantly, it takes adults who really want to connect deeply with kids. I know there are coaches, sponsors, and directors who fit this mold. 

Strike a balance between the needs of the individual and needs of the group: “There is no I in team.” There is no “I” in theatre either. The fact is that kids are individuals. They are not robots who subsume themselves in the collective. They are part of a team (or company), but they are also multidimensional people. They have families, other interests, and unique qualities. It pains me that my children had to sign up for special lessons and participate in club sports to be able to make the cut for teams. Many of my children’s teammates do nothing other than one or two sports. Specialization is what is required to compete. This is sad. I want my children to play sports. I also want them to play musical instruments, participate in clubs, go to youth group, and explore many activities.

Foster kids’ success: As a teacher, I work hard to help every student succeed. Every child in a production has a role to play. My children have been frustrated in sports because they did not have the opportunity to succeed. Furthermore, they didn’t feel like the coach was their ally. The coach was a critic, who more often than not gave them a thumbs down.

Our theatre program has a motto: The most important thing is how we treat each other. Can we treat kids in a more humane and caring way? Can inclusion and the development of skills sit side by side with competition? Winning means more than scoring: it is about the quality of kids’ experiences.

Big Boys in Little Leagues

My son just received his park district basketball team assignment and it has me wondering. While I have seen great value in these community sports programs, I am concerned about the way the teams are put together. As an educator and a parent, I have some questions about the way these organizations function. I wonder if the jury-rigging of the teams is really for the kids’ benefit or for the glory of the adults who coach them.

Each time a coach calls our house or the email arrives with a schedule and roster, my son’s first question is, “Who is on my team?” As we move from game to game, the composition of the teams is always an interesting and sometimes disturbing revelation. I am a classroom teacher and I know how difficult it is to put together “even” groups. Kids change and grow. A mediocre player one season may turn into a strong player the next. Yet, I have never been in a league where the distribution of kids was balanced.

Most of the leagues in our community use a draft to put together teams. Of course the coaches’ kids are on their team. This gives coaches a great deal of control of the team and clearly creates customized groups. There are seven boys my son’s grade in our neighborhood. He has been in class with all of them throughout the years. However, for all the team sports he has played and all the teams he has been on, he has only been with one of these boys on one team – ever! All of these boys have been in most, if not all of the same leagues. We are talking about twice as many teams than classes at school. How is this possible?

So my child gets to make new friends. So my child is not as proficient in sports as these other boys. Each season, these boys’ teams, the ones their fathers coach, are the fantastic teams. They are the teams that have several very athletically talents kids. They are the teams that have three skilled pitchers, or boys who are very tall, or extra older boys. While every coach will tell you that winning is not the focus, learning is the focus, the team composition reveals the truth of the matter.

My kids have had a wide range of coaches and all of them have been well intentioned. However, some have been more skilled than others. Only some are good at communicating with parents. Only a handful are good at connecting with the kids. And very few are good coaches. Not that long ago, we had a coach who made sure that each player got to try each position frequently. He had a line up ready in advance and printed out and posted on the fence. The strongest and weakest players all got chances to be in the “plum” spots. He affirmed all the children and complimented them far more than he pointed out problems. When he did point out issues, he instructed and demonstrated. He was not a professional teacher but I think he may have missed his calling. His gentle shouts from the bench were ones of encouragement and praise. The composition of the team was secondary, the coach made sure of that. However, this is the exception far more than the rule.

Children’s sports can teach so many important lessons. They can teach kids about exercise and teamwork. They can be about navigating relationships and learning skills. They can be a balance to the intensity of academic study. Or they can be about doing what it takes to win and learning who is on top and who sucks. Kids (and some adults) might make it about the later. It is adults’ obligation to guide them to the former. Can we let go of grabbing the “good” kids? Can we put the skill need before the social need? Can winning take a back seat to fair play and love of the game? Community sports programs: please put the children’s needs first!