Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Sunday, January 8, 2006
Buried in sport, and dance, and …
Back at the beginning of the school year, with my oldest daughter entering first grade and two others in pre-school, I made a list of the extracurricular activities I’d like to see my kids participate in during elementary school, either because they have expressed interest in it or I think it would be good for them. Here’s what I had on it:
- Soccer
- Basketball
- Swimming lessons
- Ballet
- Musical instrument lessons
- Foreign language
- Chess
- Girl Scouts
Now think about this. In the fall, all three daughters played non-competitive youth soccer through the YMCA. This meant three practices a week (one for each kid) on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. My wife, meanwhile, was taking classes on Monday night and Thursday. I usually work Tuesday night. Then Saturday mornings often entailed back-to-back-to-back games for three hours.
By the time the soccer season ended, we were completely spent. Getting together with some friends over the holidays, I realized how little we had even seen our friends during the fall. We were just too busy.
And that was just one sport for three little kids.
In Sunday’s Dayton Daily News, Jim DeBrosse wrote about overscheduled families and the challenge of ensuring your kids have opportunities to expand their horizons without burying them (and yourself) in a schedule you couldn’t track with a spreadsheet.
Part of the problem is the level of commitment required today to participate in anything.
Take sport.
A friend last summer showed me his son’s select team baseball schedule — 60 games from April to September in at least a half dozen states!
If a young boy or girl wants a shot at playing a sport in high school these days they need to get started, and get serious, very young. It’s common for coaches to begin pressuring kids as young as 12 or 13 to choose one sport to focus on.
I’m still struggling with how to give my kids the kinds of opportunities I think will help them develop into well-rounded, interesting and intelligent adults. Jim’s story essentially tells me to come to terms with the fact that the kids won’t be able to get all the things I hoped they might.
Any advice on how to choose which activities are most important, and which we should just let slide?
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