It was
amazing! A school activity that actually worked!
The system had
called me to cover a class and it turned out to be part of school-wide, two
days students’ workshops, coinciding with teachers’ training. I watched few presentations
by outside personnel about transportation, nutrition, among others, and
although quality was not great, information was well received by students.
My favorite
workshop, however, was the one presented by students to students. It was about school
sports involvement and time management. A panel of 8-10 students, all involved
in sports, mostly water, had discussed their enjoyment, achievements, struggles,
frustrations, stress handling and time management; a panel of top students,
serious, committed, mature, yet fun and engaging.
During those
two days I listened to seven (!) presentations of this panel, mostly by the same people,
with some variation, and although I was not involved and was free to do as I
liked, I could not help listening and marvel about these young people. Many of them came from Hispanic families, some testified to being their first graduates.
Some had young siblings to take care of, divorced parents, sick mother, home
chores, live far away with no easy transportation to and from school…
Yet, they
were all positive, committed, convinced in their goal and the means to achieve
it. They were candid about their struggles, their failed attempts, past bad
judgment, bad school performance… each having his/her own way of dealing with
the obstacles. They talked about time management, how to arrange their
activities, social life, how to stay awake yet get enough sleep, eat well yet watch their diet to fit their activities, how to stay on top of school assignments
maintaining good grades, while engaged in long hours of training, and how to keep the
stress in check juggling it all.
A student
had talked about the need to scream and cry from time to time, another to watches cartoons. Someone confessed to taking four showers a day, another takes power
naps, some participate in aggressive gym activity, some talk to a friend, and
one real cute boy admitted to talking to his mom… I just wanted to hug him…
I remember years ago, between my technical and teaching careers, I worked with a group of
smart professionals, who, like me, were unemployed. For a short, fondly
remembered, period of time, four of us worked in a small area we called ‘the white
room’. While doing a brainless job we discussed world problems, philosophy,
beliefs… One day, discussing education, I expressed my opinion about scholarships being unfairly awarded to ‘stupid’ (pretty sure I said that) football players, instead of academic achievers. My statement didn’t sit
well with one of my co-workers, an older, intelligent, kind man, with a long, successful
engineering career. Per my insistence he said, ‘I guess this is not a good time
to mention that I was one of those benefiting from a football scholarship…’
I have since
changed my mind, and am a believer in the benefit of stirring students to
academic success through their sports ability, but if I still had any doubt,
this workshop absolutely convinced me…
