This time, I need to vent about Division III athletics. Sports are important on our campus and most of the time I don't have a problem with that. Recently, I held some snowflakes to the same level of hard work, dedication, and can-do attitude in my class as they routinely give to athletics. The result? Complaints, excuses, and a bad attitude. WTF?!
Discuss.
Here's something I've learned across 22 years: the smaller the ball, the more integrity in the player. And yes, if you go to biologic extension, female athletes tend to bitch and whine less and deliver more than their male counterparts--heck, I am often not even aware that a female player--or a whole team of them-- is in my enrollment until the event is won to the largesse of the school as a whole.
ReplyDeleteMove to Canada. I have not encountered that sports mania in our post-secondary institutions here. Hockey's a religion here but the players aren't in my classes.
ReplyDeleteYes, it never ceases to amaze me that student-athletes (or more often, athlete-students) can't or won't transfer their dedication from the game to the classroom. I often wonder if they simply aren't capable of making the connection.
ReplyDeleteEven if all they are there to do is play their sport until their time is up, it would make sense to me to make sure they can stay the whole time (2 or 4 years, depending) so they can continue to play.
Because there are so many athletes at my institution, I've begun saying things like, "Even if you aren't interested in [insert required course here], you should do your best in this and all your classes so you have a good education to back you up if you aren't drafted to the NFL/NBA/MLB/Whatever." Surprisingly, a few tell me every semester, "I never thought of that. I guess I should at least pay attention."
"Seventeen Reasons Why Football Is Better Than Highschool"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ucfsd.org/~boarddocs/FOV1-00037F8F/FAV1-00037F91/FOV1-0003D925/why%20football%20is%20better%20than%20hs.pdf?FCItemID=S02F31A05&Plugin=Loft
It's an interesting read. I'm not sure it's got it all figured out, but it certainly makes me think about what I do in the classroom.
@Issyvoo and Mestopholita
ReplyDeleteFor all my Canuckistani love of hockey and disdain for American college sports, I have to admit the American system has one thing right. At least college sports hold out that possibility of an education to those aspiring athletes who inevitably won't make it as professional athletes. Whether they take the opportunity or not is up to them, but in Canada the junior hockey leaguers are stuck on a bus to Rouyn-Noranda (or maybe Swift Current), where it's hard to advance one's education (the bus I mean, I make no comment on the towns).
But perhaps we're missing Frank's point. My reading of the post is that the snowflakes in question weren't athletes, and thus devoting their energies neither to mind nor body?
Frank, welcome as a poster :o). You are totally stopping them from becoming the professional athletes they like deserve to be!! Don't you know that if you don't GIVE them a good grade, they'll totally lose their scholarship and won't be recognized by the NBA? And that means YOU are stomping on their dream.
ReplyDeleteI've had a student say that to me when I've explained that they still need to get the work done even when they're away playing games. I've had the same experience as Mrs. C (the female athletes seem to simply have it together a little more than their male counterparts). Good luck with that!
the snowflakes were female athletes! and yes, i am happily stomping on their dreams.
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