Deciding a Purpose for Interscholastic Sports.

For longer than some care to remember, interscholastic sports in the local schools have been justified as one of many forums for teaching life values.

Almost universally, school administrators and school board members proclaim their sports programs are "educational" and thus valuable to the children, school, and community. We hear that sports develop character-the same justification for sport the Duke of Wellington credited for Britain's success against Napoleon and Vince Lombardi preached as he prepared his forces for the game of life.

Yet other educators claim interscholastic sports are activities for elitist students that cater to the egos of jocks and coaches who encourage their charges to be singleminded about doing whatever is necessary to win.

These critics see student athletes as being coddled in ways that encourage them to develop only their physical skills at the expense of all the learning that occurs in the classroom. They see marginal athletes and interested beginners relegated to roles of observers or, at best, tackling dummies or "scout team" participants. But let's not polarize the issue so quickly.

Whining Attitude

Competitive sports can be valuable to youngsters and schools, but the value depends upon the attitudes of participants, administrators, and parents toward these programs. These attitudes have been established by centuries of influence, beginning with the "total person" ideals of Greek culture and fueled more recently by social Darwinism, which made winning a precursor to success.

We now have a society that adores winners and appreciates physical prowess, yet thinks the mind is superior to the body. We live in a society that thinks winning is the only measure of excellence.

Enter school leaders and policy makers who view sports as important to the educational and socialization process. School boards, administrators, teacher-coaches ("sport teachers"), students, and the public talk about sport as character building while demanding less of the participants and their coaches than would be asked of other school programs. The adults talk about the importance of the process, but the real message they convey through actions is that the result is what really matters.

Lax Oversight

The key question remains, "Is interscholastic sports really intended for educational purposes?" The issue continues to be hotly debated. Suffice it to say that scholars and practitioners agree that interscholastic sports, like other curricular and co-curricular programs, can be an opportunity for teaching skills and practicing appropriate behavior in social interaction.

In research we conducted among school administrators in central Pennsylvania, we found that attitudes ranged widely, even among superintendents, principals, athletic directors, and coaches within the same school district, over the purposes of interscholastic athletics. They could not agree on the ultimate aims of their sports programs or their value in the overall educational process.

Some administrators confessed they had little more than secondhand knowledge of their district's athletic programs. Not only were those responsible for these "educational programs " not reading from the same page, they also were less knowledgeable about these programs than perhaps they should be. I doubt other school programs in math, science, or social studies would be allowed to exist in such a quasi-vacuum of leadership.

If we continue to justify sports programs as educational and speak of them in the same breath as mathematics and fine arts, then we also should demand that they be created, managed, and evaluated by the same yard-stick used in the classroom: personal excellence, not external success.

If interscholastic sports programs are to be educational experiences, the responsible administrators must be willing to see that clear educational goals are established so that appropriate evaluation of these programs takes place. If school adminisirators are unwilling or unable to ensure that coaches are properly trained, observed, and evaluated, then one certainly cannot call the programs educational experiences.

It's time to be honest about interscholastic sports programs. If they are to be educational, make them so. If they are not, then call them what they are.