Mark Renner wrote:
What David Tilsen just pointed out (a good point) is
another reason I would love to see more support for
community ed programs. More opportunities for students
to connect meaningfully with an adult and other
students who are probably not feeling as motivated in
school (which are appropriately worried about test
scores and achievement).
Mark Anderson chimes in:
Absolutely! Why are our sports programs tied to our schools? Schools are
supposed to be where kids do academic stuff. Sports are incredibly
distracting and cause the sorts of problems that David Tilsen referred to.
What's wrong with our sports programs being part of park programs and
private clubs? I think most people agree that sports are over-emphasized in
the schools. Why should the schools have teams at all? It's fine to have
intramural sports (that anyone can join), but the school should not endorse
any team as representing them. I know sports teams are very important to
some people, so it would be hard to dis-engage them from the schools. But
we should definitely start down that road.
Rick Kuhlmann writes:
I am somewhat confused. Mr. Renner writes that schools are appropriately
worried about test scores and achievement. So why would you agree with
Dave Tilsen? If the schools require a higher grade average than the
state does to participate in, and this goes for all "After school"
activites, is that not a good thing? You cannot say that it is
appropriate then agree with Tilsen.
To Mr. Anderson's comments: Do you believe in just the basics in
education? If so we could really trim the budget! No after school
activities including all clubs or competitive programs (Inculding Debate
or Speech). No band, orchestra, choir, drama, art, shop...ok enough. I
think you miss the mosaic that is the high school environment. But if we
did do that we would have a lot of space to develop community ed
programs in remodeled band, shop, music and art areas.
Also a few years ago about $250,000 was spent to hire McKinley Boston (I
hope I spelled it right) to study the possibility of moving all middle
school sports to the Park Board. Maybe others on the list can remember
more of the details but my impression was that Mr. Boston did a good job
of detailing the issues. The outcome was that the list of to-do items
was about 8 pages long. Nothing has happened. If it was such a good idea
don't we think it might have had some effect? Nahhhh. It would have
meant the MPRB would have had to begin putting together competitive
teams based on tryouts and cutting players who did not play as well as
others. This is something that would go against the grain of the MPRB.
Would you not agree that having a higher grade average requirement takes
the emphasis off of athletics and puts it back in the classroom? I feel
that Minneapolis is doing a good job of de-emphasizing sports. For
example, starting next year there will be only two boys hockey teams.
One will be a combination of Southwest, Washburn and Henry. The other
will be South, Roosevelt and Edison. There will, of course, no need for
as much ice time for these teams leaving the city free to rent out even
more time to suburban schools and teams. They will play in other
conferences so the city will be devoid of any hockey related competition
in the city.
And you know, I am reminded of story I saw printed in the U of M
Education department magazine (They send it to grads of Education) about
Henry High School. A number of years ago Henry was in danger of closing.
Teachers and staff were exhausted. Drop-out rates were very high. Any
achievement was barely noticeable.
Then came the International Baccalaureate program. The rest is recent
history.
Rick Kuhlmann
Hale Page Diamond Lake
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