Sports
Last week, I was honored to serve on a discussion panel at a community forum around "Our Schools, Our Future." It was a great evening for those who believe in civic engagement--a lively dialogue, citizens who clearly believe that people on the front lines have the best chance of solving our educational problems. Topics were pretty much what you'd expect--funding, testing, charter schools--and I found it heartening that the panel was generally in alignment on the big issues.
The last question from the audience surprised me, however. The questioner wanted to know whether we thought sports were given too much emphasis in schools. The first person to grab the mic made the standard stump speech on The Value of Sports. It's a familiar set of talking points--you can probably already guess what he said:
Sports teach teamwork. Sports show kids how to win and lose. Sports are often the heart of community
