Lascelve Graham | Sports in public school shouldn’t be win-at-all-costs

Banning recruiting for sports purposes by our schools would be a clear indication that the government is serious about putting an end to, and turning around this growing wave of antisocial behaviour, sweeping across the country. It would be indicative of the government’s resolve to use its scarce education/socialisation resources as efficiently and effectively as possible in this regard.

It would allow the children who have earned their places at the school to be the targets and hence beneficiaries of co-curricular activities, as they should be. Whether sports stars or the other extreme, they deserve the best that that school can offer. They deserve the holistic experience they were promised! They all need to learn the lessons, and be exposed to the socialisation that sports and other co-curricular activities can offer, since they will all soon be adult citizens. In this scenario, schools will still discover sports talent and they will still be on display by way of the various competitions.

We must stop this farce, where our specialised public educational institutions have really become sports academies, clubs masquerading as public schools. None of our schools should fall in this category!

Peter Tosh’s hit song, You can’t blame the youth, encapsulates the idea expressed by the social cognitive theory that one is essentially the product of his/her environment. In other words, it is a human inevitability that you will be influenced strongly by your surroundings. Hence, it is of the utmost importance that our public schools be as oases in the desert, and that whomever reaches them leaves, spiritually, psychologically, mentally, emotionally and socially soothed, refreshed, invigorated, strengthened, encouraged. All cannot fit on the most bountiful oases, but we must ensure that those who do get their just rewards as do the others.

SOCIAL CHANGE AGENT

Sports in our schools can be a most powerful social change agent. However, for this to materialise, the motto must be, ‘It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game. This would ensure the caging, slaying of the win-at-all-costs monster and its corollary, recruiting for sports purposes, which is now devouring, ravaging school sports in Jamaica. This weakens the efficiency and efficacy of sports as a teaching/learning tool, while feeding its competitive, entertainment, commercial aspects, as in a professional club.

In school our coaches need to be essentially social coaches, focusing more on the behavioural, emotional and social aspects of sports, not just the technical. Sports, among other things, should be helping to make the task of the guidance counsellor easier.

The emphasis must be on the inculcation of pro-social values, attitudes and life skills including non-cognitive skills like, confidence, conflict resolution, delaying gratification, honesty, integrity, developing an academic mindset, academic behaviours, improved academic performance and many more. As a microcosm of life, sports presents many teachable moments in these areas, but the opportunities must be recognised and grasped by the coaches.

The only reason schools recruit for sports is to win at all costs!

This turns on its head, the rationale for co-curricular/extracurricular activities in public schools, which is, to provide a rounded educational/socialisation experience to all the children, who have qualified, for the curriculum, at a particular school. As it is now, they qualify for the curriculum, but not the cocurriculum, for which outsiders, who fail to qualify normally, are brought in! The children do not enjoy all the benefits offered by that school, which they have earned by their hard work, because of the double standard represented by recruiting for sports purposes.

CORRUPT SOCIALISATION PROCESS

Our leaders corrupt the socialisation process, send wrong messages to our children, and then cry out in dismay at the resulting antisocial behaviour, which they have helped to create, in our schools and society.

It is also very unfair for the children who have not qualified for the richer, more endowed schools, e.g. the traditional schools, when they are robbed of their stars and hence their schools shut out of association with excellence and all the benefits that come with it. They are forever condemned to mediocrity, non-performance, and the many hurdles that ensue there-from.

They cannot pull themselves up by their bootstraps, since even their boots have been taken away! They are being told that, “dem nuh good!”, hence, they are robbed of all the best things. They are left to hustle on their own, given no props, basket to carry water. This is at a time when our leadership should be looking to give them all the assistance possible, since we will never be able to offer quality education to all our children unless we strengthen our weaker, poorer schools. We are shooting ourselves in the foot by not making this a top priority!

Let us develop more sports academies, since sports obviously has its place. Horses for courses!

Instead of focusing on instilling early, the values, attitudes, behaviours and life skills, which are known to have a strong correlation with lessening crime, violence and other antisocial behaviours, our leaders are determined to concentrate on the other end of the spectrum, with more metal detectors and enhanced police measures. They prefer to deal with the fully formed criminal mind rather than to attack the problem at source, by using all the facilities at the disposal of the state to inculcate pro-social values and attitudes through the family and especially through the school, over which the government has essentially full control. They prefer to go the inefficient remedial route of sports for peace in communities, instead of doing it right the first time in our schools!

At this time of social crisis in Jamaica, we must make a choice. Do we use sports in our specialised education/socialisation institutions, up to the secondary level, to help in bringing about pro-social change, or do we continue the thrust focused on its entertainment, commercial value? Is the delivery of quality education/socialisation to all our children, and hence the strengthening of our weaker public schools of paramount importance or is it winning at sports? Do we continue to focus on winning the battle while losing the war?

Dr Lascelve ‘Muggy’ Graham is a former captain of Manning, All-Manning, All-Schools and All-Jamaica football teams.