The value depends upon the attitudes the public, the administrators, the coaches and the participants bring to the sports programs. During the past few months, I was privileged to be a part of an advisory group to a Pennsylvania Senate Special Committee on Interscholastic Sports. School administrators, elected officials and others justify interscholastic sports programs as educational and valuable in teaching life values to students. Opponents point out that often sports programs are for elitist students and cater to the egos of jocks and of coaches who encourage their charges only to win. Let's not be so quick to polarize the issue.
Interscholastic sports can be valuable to youngsters, but they also can be a hindrance.
Regardless of what sport can be, my colleagues and I have found that even within the same school district there is wide variation of opinions, attitudes and stated purposes among those charged with overseeing a sport program. Further, we found that those same administrators confessed little more than second-hand knowledge of the programs for which they are responsible. If we continue to justify sports programs, as well as other co curricular activities, as educational and speak of them in the same breath as we do mathematics and fine arts, then we also should demand that they are created, managed and evaluated by the same yardstick that is used in the classroom. In order for these sports programs to be called educational experiences, the responsible individuals must be willing to see that clear educational goals are established for and adequate evaluation takes place within the programs. It's time interscholastic sports programs are properly identified.