The Singing Football Player: The Untold Story

Although this topic has nothing to do with what we have talked about so far in Paideia 2 so far, I think it is a topic that needs to be addressed in U.S schools. The issue is sports versus music and why schools are forcing students to choose one or the other. Yet, colleges want students to be well rounded in their education and extra-curricular activities. Students are either in the music/art department or they are in the athletics, never setting foot in a band or choir room. Is this okay? It seems to be with school administration who set up the schedules at school, usually overlapping musical practices with athletic ones. In my own high school, there was a huge divide between the two programs and even the school was set up so that students involved in either could go a whole day without seeing one another.
We need to start emphasizing that students don't have to choose one identity or the other. They should be allowed to both if that is what they really want. Administrators and Activities Directors should schedule things that allow students to participate in a variety of extra-curricular areas. Schools need to stop de-emphasizing athletics and teach kids that music, and arts are just as "cool."

Just playing with blocks....?

Preschool seems to be the hot button item right now. There is talk of making preschools mandatory for all, but is this completely necessary. Many of my friends went to preschool for a year or two before entering kindergarten. however, I also have several friends that didn't go to preschool as well, and they don't seem any worse for the wear. Although I think that preschool provides a good way to get kids socialized, I think that is the only benefit it really offers. Kids at that age (3-4 year olds) really don't need to be learning the skills they will be learning in kindergarten. This causes repetition within the classroom, the teachers have to reteach those skills to everyone because not everyone has gone to preschool. So this then calls into question, whether we make preschool mandatory, or we just get rid of it completely. I propose that we don't have preschool at all, we need to give kids a childhood instead. Let kids be kids a little longer and let the kindergarten be the place where they learn the basic skills they need. This is not to say that kids should just be at home until kindergarten, kids still need to be socialized but this could be done through daycare, play groups or just in the neighborhoods.