My thoughts on the NFL draft

As the offseason is officially underway for the Washington Redskins, and the draft predictions are beginning in full earnest, I figured now would be a good time to share my thoughts on the NFL draft. First of all, I understand the the NFL is a big business. If athletes have the skills and talents necessary to play at the professional level and NFL teams need their particular sets of skills and talents, why shouldn’t an athlete participate? It is, after all, what many athletes have been striving towards their entire lives. And for many of them, they have had to overcome great difficulties and hardships and sports has provided a way to do that. We should celebrate that they found a positive way in which to participate in the world and be productive. (Trust me, I think the salaries are out of control, but again…that’s for another post.)

However, it seems that in order to achieve the goal of playing sports at a professional level, athletes are forced to pick enormous salaries and the promise of stardom, etc. over completing their college education. Because the NFL draft rules are set up the way they are, many college athletes choose to leave college in the middle of their junior year (they have to declare their eligibility by Jan 15), in order to participate in the NFL Combine (showing their skills to scouts from the various professional teams) and many of the other things that come along with being a prospective NFL player. But for those that are not drafted (not many, let’s be honest) or for those that get seriously injured during the first year or two that they are in the NFL, what do they do when they aren’t playing football anymore? Why do we force someone to choose one or the other? Why can’t it be that they have the opportunity to finish their college degree and play football? Why can’t they finish the degree first and then play? As a teacher, it just seems so obvious that an education would provide so many opportunities for beyond the years of playing football or for those that aren’t able to play for very long. Again, just my two cents.

Follow-up…

As I have been watching some of the college football bowl games this week (I missed Baylor’s bowl game), it came to my attention that Robert Griffin, III, quarterback of Baylor, has also been vocal about his faith. He won the Heisman trophy this year and has yet to make a decision as to whether he will enter the NFL draft in April or return to Baylor for another season. While I want him to play for the Redskins since we REALLY need a quarterback, I also want athletes to complete their education. Anyway, that’s a post for another time. This post is a follow-up to the one below about Christianity and the NFL.

Last year, as Tim Tebow was playing his final season in college, there was a significant focus on his faith, as there has been this year in his rookie NFL season with Denver. So, as much media coverage as there has been on Robert Griffin III, why is there not as much discussion about his faith? He clearly has some serious athletic skills and talents, similar to Tim Tebow. RG3, as he is known, led his college team to winning seasons and has broken tons of records. He led his team to a victory in the Alamo Bowl game last night, competing in the highest score in regulation game in college football history. So, why not so much coverage about his faith? When I look to find information about his faith, I find lots of blog entries from people close to the Baylor team or that follow college sports much more closely than I do. There are a few articles online about his faith. But not nearly the amount of coverage that Tim Tebow’s faith received while he was playing in college.

So, what gives? It seems that the media loves to focus on one aspect of an athlete rather than the whole person. So, they focus on Tim Tebow’s faith and focus on RG3′s athletic skills. The same could be said of other stories that the media covers (or not). Focus on one aspect of the political race, focus on one aspect of the war, focus on one aspect of anything, rather than giving the full picture. Ugh! I want to know about the whole person, the whole story. Then, I can make a decision about who to support, what I think, etc. Anyway…another of my two cents.

Christianity & the NFL

Tebowing…the phrase that is apparently all the rage at the moment in the NFL. It references Tim Tebow, the rookie quarterback for the Denver Broncos. Tim Tebow is a Christian. His parents were missionaries overseas. It is a part of who he is and what he believes. Tebowing refers to the kneeling and praying that he has been known to do during football games, both in his college and, now, his NFL career.

What is so interesting to me about this is that he is far from the only Christian in the NFL, so why all the fuss about his beliefs and actions during football games? Having been a football fan for most of my life, watching NFL games, and attending a few NFL games in my life, I have seen countless numbers of expressions of faith in the NFL. After almost every game, players from both teams gather at midfield to pray together. Quarterbacks, receivers, and other players will point to the sky or cross themselves after a particular play, especially a scoring play. My two all-time favorite players of the Washington Redskins, Darrell Green and Art Monk, are Christians and it is a part of who they are. They never hid this while playing and actually were quite vocal about where their abilities and talents came from. When they were both inducted into the Hall of Fame several years ago, I invited some people over to our house to watch the induction ceremony, people that were not necessarily football or Redskins fans. I invited them so they could understand why I LOVE these two players so much. They live their faith. While their speeches did talk about their successes in football, they focused on their faith and always thanked God for the talents and abilities He had given them and the successes they had been able to achieve. Joe Gibbs, former coach of the Redskins and NASCAR team owner, is a very vocal Christian and has prayed before many NASCAR races. Reggie White, former defensive player for the Eagles and Packers, was known as the “Minister of Defense.” He was an amazing defensive football player and an ordained minister that pastored an inner city church in Philadelphia. If there is an injured player on the field, you will see other players from both teams, praying for the injured player.

So why the crazy focus on Tim Tebow’s Christianity? I don’t get it…

A realization…maybe I’ve always known this?

I have come to a realization recently. Maybe I’ve actually known this for a long time but am now able to articulate it. This realization is that the generation of kids that I have taught (I’ve been teaching for 12 years), have been so tested throughout their school career that we have actually created people that learn information only to take the test and then it is purged from their brain. Grant it, some information will be retained just because. But, if students approach learning with the idea that they only have to know this information for the test rather than for the actual learning that comes with that information, we have done an extreme disservice to our students. As an example, a few weeks ago, I assigned a timeline and maps assignment all about the American Revolution. Students used 4 class days to work on the assignment and then had time at home to finish. It was due the Monday prior to Thanksgiving. The Monday following Thanksgiving, the drill was a sheet listing 4 of the important early battles of the Revolution (ex: Lexington & Concord) and asked the students to give a date (year) and why the battle was important (first battle, first American victory, etc.). Students complained and complained and complained…”how are we supposed to know this?, “Do we have to know the exact date?” etc. I then hung up papers around the classroom with the names of various battles of the Revolution on them. Students were to go to each of the pages and write something about that battle, and they couldn’t write something that someone else had already written. It was very telling. The timeline and maps assignment was not just something to take up time, but was intended to help the students understand the relationship between the battles and to see the bigger picture of the entire Revolution. Some of them may have remembered some information, but for the most part it was not the case. And that is just one example.

So, how can we change this interpretation of learning for our students (and their parents sometimes, too)? How do we make sure that students become life-long learners?

In my opinion, we need to evaluate students in a variety of ways and evaluate our teachers in a variety of ways. Evaluating student learning ONLY by the test scores in math and reading (MD tests science in 8th grade also), does not give a true sense of the learning that student has actually done over the course of their school career that year. We need to use the test scores in addition to other ways of measuring student learning, such as performance evaluation, presentations, projects, creative assignments, etc. The same could, and should, be said of teacher evaluations. We should not only be evaluated by the scores a student receives on a test, but also through a variety of other measures such as observation, mentoring, etc.

To think or not to think? That is the question…

In my classroom and in many other history classrooms in the district in which I teach and around the nation, history teachers teach in such a way as to develop critical thinking abilities in the students in their classrooms. I am not saying this only happens in history classrooms. But, apparently, according to some, by teaching kids to develop critical thinking skills, and asking them to analyze historical documents and then to use those documents to support a student’s own interpretation of historical events, that is just asking too much. We should just “teach the facts” of history. In many previous generations, history was taught was merely a set of names and dates to memorize and regurgitate on the test. As noted in my previous post, those generations of adults know the dates that are important in American history and sometimes in world history. But, is that enough? Just the names and dates? History is not merely just names and dates, but it is about the process of those events, the cause and effect relationships that allowed those events to happen, how the people living at the time were influenced by the world around them, how they changed the world around them, and what happened as a result of those decisions. By asking students to read and analyze primary and secondary sources and come up with their own interpretation, we are trying to create a world in which students, when they become adults, can make their own decisions and opinions about what is happening around them. They will be able to evaluate and analyze the political campaigns of candidates, the legislation being proposed that they could vote on in referendums, the legislation in Congress and how they might interpret said legislation, etc. And the list goes on…There is so much to teach our children in this digital age, global economy, etc. We have to be able to think and not just regurgitate names and dates, but really understand what that means. Why does it have to be about the “liberal agenda” or being called “unAmerican”? Isn’t teaching critical thinking and analysis a good idea?