Review and Revise

So, there was an article popping around facebook the other day about how some failing schools are finding success by getting rid of their sports programs.  The basic argument was that students could play club sports on their own time which would free up lots of money that schools could then spend on academics. There was immediate cost savings (no games, equipment, security, travel), but also things like not having to hire substitutes (when teacher-coaches left early on game day).  While studies have shown that student athletes perform better than their peers on things like AP exams; those gains are diminished when one factors in socio-economic factors.  So, basically, most student-athletes would be more likely to perform well on AP exams even if they were NOT in any school athletics.

Then I listened to this podcast today on parenting and what things parents do/don't do that will affect their children's future performance (college, jobs, success, happiness, etc).  They claimed that the "gains" by all the things we parents feel like we "should" be doing (tons of extra activities, visits to museums, etc.), are relatively small compared with other things.  For example, if parents smoke you see much more of an effect (negative) than if a child was in piano lessons (positive).  Any supposed advancement due to hyper-involved parents can be more easily explained by the fact that hyper-involved parents are more likely to have higher income and education levels.  The higher income and education levels are a much greater predictor to future "success" than whether or not you were hyper-involved.  (the kids from higher income families who were not hyper-involved do just as well as those whose parents carted them around to every activity they could find).

So, this is either freeing (hey!  I can be a lazier parent and my kids will still be OK) or disheartening (why do I even try if it doesn't matter at all in the end).  But none-the-less, I will try to review and revise our activity schedule.

This will not be easy.  I still believe it's important that the kids can swim (life/death thing), play music (learning persistence and how to practice to attain a goal), participate in sports (physical fitness and being part of a team), and other enrichment activities (they need to try things out to see what they might really like).  But, would the world come crashing down if we quit piano? - no.  Would they end up overweight and unhealthy if they played one sport non-competitively? - no.  Do I want to be like the neighbors - giving up almost every other weekend for tournament travel so my kid can play a sport that they'll *maybe* continue into HS, barring some unforeseen injury?  Heck no.

Check back with me in a year and I'll let you know how it's going.  I told Allison today there wasn't a girl scout troop this year.  She looked at me and said, "Don't give up, mom.  Girl Scouts never give up.  I will not give up on Girl Scouts."