Despite grand plans to watch everything on TV, we’ve only managed to watch highlights so far of the FIFA World Cup. We’ve been listening on the radio, which is better than I expected. Who is that Irish commentator on ESPN? Great fun to listen to his hyper-dramaticization of the few goals being scored. Best part of the Cup, thus far? Teaching my kids — and myself — geography and culture highlights.
My older two kids (10 and 7) still talk about what they did at recess before anything else. Sure, I’d love if they talked a bit more about the lessons they learned inside the classroom, but now there is extra proof showing that recess makes learning more effective. A new study published in the journal Pediatrics shows that children who get at least 15 minutes of recess for a school day behave better in the classroom than those who get less or no play time. According to an article in the New York Times, there are other recent studies linking physical activity to improved in-class performance. The reason this is such important research is that, as schools endeavor to improve academic achievement for their students and concurrently battle with shrinking budgets, one thing that should be a staple is recess and perhaps even more time to play (P.E., anyone?) and rest the brain so the kids can go back inside and learn more effectively. Still, not all schools can afford supervision for play time. At our own public school, the parents banded together to raise money to pay for a P.E. teacher and we really feel it’s been money well spent.
From the summer of 2006 to the same season of 2007, my friend Rob Reed and I hosted a podcast about all things baseball. Life and the ever-growing demands of fatherhood for both of us forced us to take a break, though Rob continued doing a show and running his excellent PlayerTrack.com and BaseballGeeks.com sites. Now, he and I are returning to our show for a fun, efficient half-hour discussing the national pastime and its fantasy baseball step-child. The feeling is that baseball is one of our great loves and, frankly, our kids get a kick out of hearing their daddies keep their inner-children alive and well on the air.
Starting on January 13, hear us weekly on Tuesdays at 4pm PST at BlogTalkRadio.com/BaseballGeeks. Let us know what you think. You can fire off comments and questions on this blog entry.
In the male-dominated world of professional sports, in which old notions of masculinity are often upheld, comes a glimmer of progression. A recent ESPN SportsCenter question of the night asked if an athlete should play on the same day as his child is born. With about 140,000 votes cast, 75% of the voters said fatherhood is more important than the game. If thletes can publicize their choice to not play on the day of their child’s birth, then a lot of young fans out there will learn something good from their role models’ decision.
Frustrated by my pacifist son’s willingness to let an opposing soccer player stiff-arm him away from the ball, I told my child that it’s OK to push back because it’s part of the game. So, my kid did just that, rather lightly — and apologized quickly before continuing the action. I’m lucky because my son’s better nature overcame my soccer-dad drive, which allowed me teach something that is a little dicey since it’s hard for many third-graders to understand the diffference between the playing field and the everyday world of classrooms and playdates. This is just the kind of issue that worries the Josephson Institute of Ethics, which recently published the findings of a nationwide survey on the ethics of student athletes (http://www.josephsoninstitute.org/reportcard/). The study concludes that athletes cheat more on tests and in other situations than students who are not on athletic teams.
The survey has also caught the attention of the Los Angeles Times, which interviewed experts with opinions from various angles, from coaches to league administrators (http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-ethics18feb18,1,7160649.story). Under scrutiny is how students come to cut the corners of fairness to success. Are coaches to blame because they’re more driven or pressured to win? Are parents pushing their children too hard without seeing the off-the-field consequences? Are professional athletes — who use steroids, spike the fuel in their race cars, and trash talk — too influential on our children?
I agree with Michael Josephson, who heads the Josephson Institue of Ethics as well as the long-running Character Counts campaign, in my concern that winning at all costs at the youth level will often lead to the same philosophy among adults. This is not a new worry, but it is one we must continue to address if we are to raise children with integrity and honor. Reality dictates that many of our most successful adults are liars and cheaters, but that does not mean we cannot have some effect in changing that.
My oldest son, now eight years old, isn’t exactly a superstar on the athletic field. He lacks a competitive fire and admits to being “much better at passing the ball than scoring.” Yet he loves to run, has great team spirit, and gets a little more skilled each year. If a recent article published in the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune (http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-sports2oct02,0,2174372.story?coll=la-home-health) is any indication, by the time my child reaches high school, there will be little room for his kind on the sports teams.
The feature story explains that high schools lack the funding to carry more than a varsity or junior varsity or even sports beyond the major ones such as football, basketball, and baseball. With fewer teams, the competition for the available spots on the rosters is fierce, so only the elite athletes get the chance to play. Of these upper-echelon jocks, many of them get special coaching and even trainers. So what happens to the rest of the kids who want to play or just to stay in shape? It appears that there are slimmer pickings – compared to what was available for previous generations — in the way of teams or physical education at the high school, let alone lower school, level for anyone who isn’t a top-notch athlete.
Although many of us have a while to go before our kids get to high school, the article brings out a key question. How do we keep our less-than-superstar athletes playing games? Since there is an economic reality to the lack of teams available at the high school level – one that probably requires solutions involving political means and serious local fundraising — the real answer lies within a child’s self-motivation to play sports and a parent’s ability to both make sports an option and instill a love for games that goes beyond perfection.
From an early age, we need to offer as many athletic opportunities for our kids as we can. That doesn’t mean they have to play a season of organized sports for each, though you should consider trying a few, but it does mean that we teach them a little about many games, from baseball to badminton. Who knows what they’ll end up getting into? We also have to instill in them a sense of pride in trying hard, always endeavoring to improve, even when faced with the fact that they may not be the best jock on the field. And if there’s no team available for them to play on, then we can try to form our own regular games with kids in the community, renting out gyms or commandeering fields at a local park. We need to get our kids playing for health and for their spirits. We cannot give in to a sports culture that only attends to the elite and ignores everyone else. As always, I look forward to your comments.
Lately, athletes haven’t exactly comported themselves in heroic ways. Growing up, I idolized Hank Aaron, Magic Johnson, and Ryne Sandberg – among many others. I was a sucker for their on-field/court exploits and their community support. These days, players get more press for their selfishness, substance abuse, and assault charges. Of course, many of today’s sports performers are honorable people, and with female athletes getting their due, there are more fine role models than people realize.
For now, I want to call attention to Cesar Izturis, the Gold Glove-shortstop-turned-utility-player for the Los Angeles Dodgers. This month, Izturis took some time away from the Dodgers (who are currently in a tail spin) to attend the birth of his child. He had expected to miss only 48 hours, but because it was a Caesarean birth, the recovery took four days. Rather than return to the team, Izturis stayed with his wife to help her and see to the care of his first child.
In the manly sport of baseball, Izturis chose the manlier act of remaining with his wife. It’s not that she was in danger, it’s that he wanted to see her home, healthy and secure. For this, he earns my respect and admiration because he’s modeling not only for grown men, but for the kids out their who follow athletes’ private lives as much as their public ones.
Now the Dodgers apparently did not give Izturis a hard time, and the team’s general manager seemed openly supportive of his player’s fatherly choice. However, writing about the situation in the Los Angeles Times, columnist J.A. Adande sheds light on the fact that the Major League Players’ Association has made sure that athletes get sufficient bereavement leave but does not stipulate that they get paternity time (link). Adande writes, “We knock the deadbeat dads — especially pro athletes — who abandon their children, but we don’t accommodate the men who want to be there for their kids from day one.”
Adande makes an even more significant point: “Baseball is far from the only industry that doesn’t look after the rights of dads who want to be with their newborn children. A 2005 report by the Families and Work Institute showed that only 13% of the American employers surveyed offered paid paternity leave.”
Paternity leave is an issue unto itself, and one I’ve written about in the past and will continue to write because working dads should get the time to be with their families right from the start. Then there is the issue of baseball and the window of opportunity it has to make a statement about fatherhood, parenting, and family in general. Major League Baseball and the MLB Players’ Association should amend their collective bargaining agreement to include paternity time and then shout it out to the rest of the world as loud as the words “Play ball!”
In the meantime, I’m gonna cheer for the amazing dad and player Cesar Izturis, who, as of the hour of this writing, hit a two-run home run to help the Dodgers win — in more ways than one.
