“Vince Lombardi, arguably the most inspirational American football coach of all time said, ‘Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.’”
The idea is that repeatedly practicing imperfect technique may indelibly imprint the repeating of the same when it really counts on game day.
But what if every day is game day?
There are those who seem to imply that youth should be allowed leeway in learning the significance of those lines on the field that separate fair from foul, good behavior from bad, what is acceptable from what is not.
But what are we actually doing to our youth when the lines – in leniency – are blurred?
Very possibly a huge disservice.
“Inept coaches don’t just fail to help you, they actually help you to fail,” is one interpretation of what the legendary Green Bay Packer’s coach said.
In baseball, “whether it’s a youth baseball player hitting a foul ball, a little league player, or a professional, the territory is almost always the same.”
Fair from foul, clearly marked, every day, exactly, consistently, the same.
Do we change the width of the strike zone because the pitcher can’t hit it?
From Little League to Major League the 17-inch width of home plate is the same.
Which observation led long-time baseball coach John Scolinos to ask the more than 4,000 baseball coaches in attendance at the 52nd annual ABCA convention, “what do we do when our best player shows up late to practice? What do we do if he violates curfew? What if he uses drugs? Do we hold him accountable? Or do we change the rules to fit him? Do we widen home plate?”
And what if the ‘field of play’ is the home?
If in “our discipline we don’t teach accountability to our kids,” Scolinos continue, “and there is no consequence for failing to meet standards, we widen the plate.”
And what if the ‘field of play’ is the school?
“The quality of our education is going downhill fast,” Scolinos said that first week of January 1996. “Teachers have been stripped of the tools they need to be successful….to educate and discipline our young people. We are allowing others to widen home plate! Where is that getting us?”
It’s a good question.
Perhaps the only question that matters.
The issues of relaxed standards for responsible behavior and actual academic performance for students could not be more effectively expressed. Communities suffer when many of the young graduate from high school without basic academic skills or knowledge that irresponsible behavior has negative consequences. The lack of such skills and awareness not only affect a community, they are a disservice to the youth whom schools are tasked to develop.
David,
I know from experience that what you share is true.
That is the natural order of things.
However, a vocal minority here in Western Washington, will call your observations racist, divisive, mysoginistic, lacking empathy, unfair, and a number of other buzzwords they use to cancel our desire to be better – faster – stronger.
As I travel and gain different perspective, I become aware of the top-down delusion that has overtaken Western Washington.
Rewarding failure while punishing effort is to cause apathy.
No other species does that and survives the test of time.
Time passes the same either way.
Why not make something of it?
This is exactly what we have happeing in schools and society…all under the new catchy word equity. It is blurring lines and lowering standards .
In the latest Lakewood magaize they have a whole article about it. When I read it I couldn’t help but wonder a few things. First off I wonder how much is this DEI manager making? Every government agency now spends alot of our tax money hiring these types of“managers”. The things they focus on are exactly what this article talks about. Lowering disciplining, lowering learning standards, hiring based on a lens of equity rather than the best teachers etc….Our CP school district has a DEI manager at the tune of $160,000/year and he has an assistant at around $67,000. That almost a quarter of a million dollars!
The article also asked “how might we improve our recruiting to make our organization APPEALING to candidates of color”? Shouldn’t our agencies be looking for the best candidates? This sounds like we are willing to adjust our requirements or needs in order to pander to specific candidates. This is the new feel good way of running a government agency. But unfortunately numbers in schools, where it has been implemented first, do not show improvements, it actually is showing quite the opposite.
It’s interesting how this runs a close parallel to what is taking place globally: Will our countries be run by autocrats who believe the rich and privedged should be the decision makers or will democracy reign, letting the voice of the majority – “We the People” – be heard.
It was Abe Lincoln’s dream that democracy rule the land and education was a vital tool in achieving that success. After Abe’s death, that dream was tossed aside, again swinging the country back into the hands of power-hungry, money-grubbing politicians. We had two more equitable presidents who stood up – during very pivotal times: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt who, despite tremendous opposition, ruled in favor of the voice of the people.
Decisions are at such a point for our schools. Will the tried-and-true rules and regulations be upheld because they are both comfortable and favored by leaders bent on listening to others in power, or will there be a swing in the direction that favors truth, wholesomeness, equity and fairness for all children.
As the world watches the situation in Ukraine where the takeover of democracy is at a dangerous crossroads, the outcome the majority pray for is decency. Fairness. Equality.
These words by Abraham Lincoln must be remembered as our leaders, our teachers, our school board members make life-changing decisions:
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war.”
And here we are in 2022 facing a great battlefield for the future of our children. Let the words of Lincoln ring as true today as they did in 1863.
Having played baseball all of my life, starting as a catcher in little league in the early 1950’s and having to quickly learn the difference between “fair” and “foul” and respond accordingly, this “hits very close to home!”
I was raised in a home where learning right from wrong behavior happened very early in my life! My sisters and I were rewarded for good behavior, and punished when we failed!
Lines were clearly drawn by our Gidly parents, we learned quickly that success and family happiness were the desired results for each of us as we daily kept “limits” in our patterns of life!
We were each given responsibilities to do our part in having a happy and secure family! Everyone in a successful family can relate to having “a level playing field” where rules are the same for everyone!
This was true in our schooling as well! We knew what the expectations and the hard and fast rules were, and never found ourselves in the principal’s office for discipline, nor de we spend time in “detention” after school, never!
In later years, coaching and managing softball and baseball teams naturally followed for me, and I have served about 7 years as a baseball umpire in Puyallup Recreation League, where I helped many teams each day to understand the importance of the analogy of respecting and observing the “white foul lines!
Someone must determine the “fair or foul” call! We all know, and agree, that that is the sole responsibility of the home plate umpire, but we don’t always agree with the call! Nevertheless, the umpire’s call is final!
As in life at school, where lines of responsibility are drawn for the purpose of providing “a level playing field” when it comes to setting expectations and keeping order, and maintaining an atmosphere where every student can learn, side by side, there must be lines!
Successful oversight and consistent discipline policies are the ultimate responsibility of your local school board, and families and students who understand that their future successes, or failures are related to having successful discipline policies and related consequences for those students choosing to walk in their own path!
Thanks, David Anderson for focusing on this subject for the school board to review! Many students will come back to thank you and the board of the Clover Park School District in the years ahead!
Godspeed!
David Anderson,
As is frequently the case, you are right on target with your observations and comments.
Young people must learn to make intelligent quality decisions in life. What they learn or fail to learn growing up will impact on them when they become adults.
Every individual who learns the relationship between decisions & behavior as related to consequences is placed in the position to more easily make the correct decisions in life that can serve them well.
It amazes me that no one ever makes the connection between bad behavior and bad consequences. Parents and schools have a responsibiltiy to teach the relationship between behavior and consequences. One teaching method is called discipline.
There are two flavors of behavior: Good behavior and bad behavior. Each kind of behavior has a direct connection to one of two kinds of consequences: good consequences or bad consequences.
If parents and schools fail this important child / adult development responsibility, then they should blame themselves when their child suffers a negative consequence as a young person or adult such as being sent to jail or stopped by a police officer’s bullet.
I too was a kid once. My parents and my school principal, who I admire to this day, worked hard at teaching me about decisions, behavior as related to cause and effect. That is why I never did any hard prison time and I never handed over to the cops a reason to shoot me.
Good cops will never use excessive force, or for that matter, any force if a subject complies with lawful police orders. Cause and effect is especially important when an individual is in a “comply or die” situation.
Kids could benefit from learning what TV character, Detective Baretta, taught us. “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.” Administering discipline in school and at home is how young people learn if they “can do the time”.
If we fail todays kids by not teaching them “The importance of the white line” we have only ourselves to blame.
Joseph Boyle –
David Anderson you nail it again! As a parent of four, I begin this journey of discipline at home! Poor choices equal poor consequences. What’s happening in our district is unfortunately undoing the hard work parents have already put in to teaching their children. They need consistency. Thank you for continuing to put our children first! The last couple of weeks have really shown who is truly focused on the kids!
I have a hard time looking at those graduating high school to come work for me. Why is that? Because students, especially those from the Clover Park School District cesspool, are ill equipped to handle basic tasks. Basic math skills are severely lacking. This district has widen home plate so much so that it is no longer 17″ but more like 17 miles. It is easy to have high graduation rates when you have loosened the standards to such a degree. (There are exceptions to what I am saying, but in the past the exceptions were those that didn’t do this. Now they are in the minority all in the interest fairness.)