Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Interesting article about US math achievement

I have seen something fascinating. DH and I were strong high school atheletes and mediocre college atheletes. Still, people excepted us to have athletic children. DS6 is obviously not going to be atheletic. He has a genetic disorder and has been in PT and/or OT off and on since he was an infant. As soon as "people" realize this, it is socially acceptable for us to push him in academics and the arts.

It's culturally UNacceptable to not have your kid involved in sports of some type. I cannot tell you how many times someone has asked me if DS8 is on a soccer team. No, he isn't but he takes soccer and gymnastics at his Chinese aftercare. As soon as they hear that he has some sports involvement, it's okay; he won't grow up to be a crazy, anti-social recluse.

Our neighbor's teenager is obsessed with baseball and has natural talent; he probably will get a college scholarship. They sign him up for traveling teams and spend weekends at tournaments; he has tons of practices and games they attend. Yet they looked askance at me when I mentioned DS8 (at the time DS5) was reading Harry Potter; it was all "Let him be a kid!" Umm...he's pulling me along; I just support his habit.

I guess I don't see sports as always "winning" over academics around here. Sure, athletic achievements are reported and celebrated, but I don't see anyone hiding the kids who qualified for MathCounts Nationals or USAMO. Those achievements are celebrated as well.

While your neighbor's teen might be obsessed with baseball, perhaps it is just a matter of perspective. Just as they give weird looks to your Harry Potter reading little kid, you may think they are wacky for letting their kid play travel ball. (By the way, you need to try out for travel ball teams - there are always cuts - you can't just sign up.) My older two play/played travel softball but they are not obsessed. They play 4 or 5 fall tournaments, then 8-10 tournaments in the spring/summer. Practice twice a week, 1.5-2 hours each, throughout the year. (We are in a cold weather state, so winter practices are indoors.) Add in two 1.5 hour high school "optional" practices during the winter as well. And sometimes speed and agility class. And weekly batting lessons. If this is what you see your neighbor doing, that is not really that much, but to an outsider, it could look obsessive.

Consider that playing ball may help him get into college. I'm not talking athletic scholarships, but a "slot" or a "tip" from a coach at a top academic DIII school. My eldest had interest from coaches at two top LACs, though she ultimately decided to go to a DI school (which doesn't even have softball, except for a club team, which she plays on). Middle kid is going through the recruiting process right now.

Sorry, got a little off track, but didn't want to see sports get trashed. Kids can fit in both academics and sports. Mine aren't motivated to do "extra" academics, but they do read quite a bit. They fit in a rigorous course schedule and their sports, and they just don't feel like doing extra academics. If a kid chooses extra academics, that's fine, and if a kid chooses sports, that's fine too.

Just because it might be interesting, take a look at neighbor kid's travel ball website. Team sites often list GPA and SAT scores (that is if he is playing 16U or 18U). Maybe you'll be surprised - sometimes you don't realize who the smart kids are until you look at those sites.

Every week our local newspaper has a sports section with reports on the games of the boys' and girls' high school teams, with the names of top scorers highlighted. I don't see stories writing up the results of say math competitions. (Which could be interesting, at least to some. You could print an interesting problem and describe how someone solved it.) In the high school there is a large trophy case for past athletic titles. I don't see the equivalent for academic competitions. Our town has a sports hall of fame where players and teams from decades ago are inducted.

Sports are honored. Academics are not. And this is in an affluent Boston suburb where high percentages of parents have college and graduate degrees. My gripe is not that sporting achievement is honored but that academic achievement is not, at least not much.

People still read newspapers?

Exactly the same phenomenon that we see in our district, which is one of the best in our state and has a very high percentage of well-educated parents. Sports achievements are visible everywhere on weekly basis if not more frequent. Academic achievements are mentioned in online and print newspapers a few times a year: at graduation time or when national merit scholars are announced, etc.

The kid I mentioned in an earlier post won some sort of district or state math competition in second grade. The school does not promote these competitions, the parents signed her up independently. The kid wanted to bring in her trophy for show-and-tell and the teacher refused to allow her to do that or talk about it. She said that would be bragging. This teacher also told the parents "There's nothing I can do for your DD" when they asked about getting her higher level math.

If the kid had won a swim competition would there have been the same response? No sports trophies brought in for show-and-tell? Somehow I don't think so.

But culture can be changed. I remember a few years ago one parent wanted to submit a blurb to the school PTO newsletter about our chess team winning the state championship, and was told by the PTO that no specific names could appear in the blurb--can you imagine something like this if a sports team won a state title? I also remember that my DS (he was probably 8 or 9 at the time) talked with the principal about the chess team's victory, and the principal let him write down the names of the kids in the team and made an announcement to the whole school during daily announcement time. These days the PTO newsletter and the school newsletter routinely publish blurbs written by parents celebrating academic wins with participants' names spelled out. At show-and-tell time, some kids bring in sports trophies, my DD brings her violin and performs for the class. I'm fully supportive of this and am ready to talk with the teacher if it's a problem. But so far the teacher welcomed it very much. So I think things do change, if enough people push for change.