Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Monday, July 26, 2004

Recent Thoughts

The summer semester here is winding down and I have a few moments to reflect. I find myself wondering about my students, their futures and the idea of education in general. Some of this comes from the courses I taught here at Gordon where I have had such a variety of students over the last eight weeks. Some have done well, some have done poorly and some are still in the middle. I was surprised to receive an email from a student wanting me to change a grade for no other reason than she "needed" a better one. The idea of asking for that is beyond me. In my world view, you tend to get what you earn. The student earned the grade given and yet wants to be given a better grade for no other reason than she wants it. Oh sure, there are the rationalizations one must always come up with to arrive at such an amazing request but what it comes down to is that the student doesn't want to get the grade she earned. I have to say that I received a few grades in college I wasn't particularly happy with but I never considered asking a professor to change said grade, even when I felt I had been a victim of a less than scrupulous professor.

Another interesting experience was teaching a course for on-line educators. For the most part these folks are hard working people who care deeply about what they were doing and how they can better serve their students. In one discussion question, however, I asked them to explain what they expected from students coming into their classes and what they thought their students should be able to do when they leave the educator's class. I have to say that the results confirmed what I have long suspected. Many educators have no expectations and no real objectives. Many of them actually believe that having them is wrong or bad. Many believe that failure is not an option in bad way (I can't fail a student, the consequences would be too severe). I had a NASA funded educational consultant monitoring the course and I think she was blown away. The government agencies that involve themselves in K-12 education have no real understanding of what's happening in the trenches. I'm really beginning to think that "No Child Left Behind" means "No Child Really Educated". I have to say, if I had children, I would either home-school or send them to a private school.

On an unrelated note, Lance made history this weekend. Most everybody knows about his sixth consecutive Tour victory at this point but almost no one knows how six victories in a row have happened. Phil Liggett reported a statistic that was a good indicator of the preparation Lance puts in. Prior to racing the Tour, Lance had already logged over 12,000 miles of training in the first six months of the year. That's halfway around the globe. Since December of 2003 when my training season started I've logged 10,000 which is a 14,000 mile pace for the entire year (I take November off). Lance trains more in six months than I do in twelve. I wonder if every athlete held to such a disciplined training schedule how the face of sports would change?

Speaking of sports (did I just channel Howard Cossell?), did you read where the men's and women's basketball coaches where fired at LaSalle University after two alleged rapes came to light. In one case a female player from another univerity who was acting as a counselor at a basketball camp at the university was raped by two men's players and in the other case a member of the university's own women's team was raped by players from the men's team and then was discouraged from reporting it by university coaches. To me this is where big money college athletics is going. The pressure to win is so great and so pervasive that many coaches feel that they must act in ways that put the students at the universities they work at at risk. Athletes with questionable character are recruited because they can play and coaches make horrible decisions to keep them there. Universities recruit and hire coaches with character issues themselves becasue they seem to be able to deliver the wins and, with them, greater contributions through supporters and alumni. When does it stop? What can anyone do? Really it's all our fault because we support the system by watching events on TV, buying tickets to games and sending in our alumni money to the general scholarship accounts. In my opinion the least that should happen is that LaSalle's basketball program should be shut down for ten years. Any program in which a coach conspired to cover up a felony should be shuttered. If a fraternity is found guilty of hazing it's members it is suspended for a duration that gaurentees that any student involved in the original problem will not be at the university when the fraternity is allowed back. Ten years would make sure that all parties responsible for the felony (athletes, coaches, fans, boosters, rich alumni, athletic directors, university presidents) would have a good long time to think about who they hire and why. No university would ever take a chance on a tainted coach again. Many coaches would have their character shored up each time they were tempted to overlook something by the possible consequences of their actions. I can't help but believe that the University of Alabama would have taken a lot closer look at Mike Price if such a rule had been in place.

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