Someone shared a story with me last year about a school where the entire football team showed up in their jerseys to a parade. The purpose was not to be part of the parade; rather, they were there to cheer on their school’s marching band. The team felt it was important to show support to a group from their school that supported their own team by playing at home games.
What an outstanding attitude! We hear about, care about, and fret about our local sports teams, almost agonizingly at times. This team or that team isn’t doing as well as last year — what’s the problem? Or we might think the team is pretty good but worry about playoffs or injuries.
Do as many people talk about, care about, and fret about our other student activities? Is the community as a whole as worried about the Waseca Marching Band Classic this weekend as they are about Homecoming next week? Will there be front-page coverage if a member of the speech team competes at state, just as there was when the football team made it last year? When budgets are set, are plays just as important in those talks as basketball?
Many things fall under the umbrella of extracurricular activities. However, when we hear the word extracurricular, we often default to sports. Don’t get me wrong. Sports are exceedingly important, and I love them as much as anyone. But, more and more, I hear about great things accomplished by kids who will never touch an athletic field or court, and that’s awesome!
We have students who work really hard at activities such as band, choir, speech, and drama and who have the chance to show those skills off in public. Sometimes there are tremendous crowds for these events. For example, the Waseca Marching Classic this Saturday will have huge crowds thronging the street, eager to watch excellence in marching bands. It won’t just be the families of the band members either; many people from the town are part of this big day.
But look around the next time you attend a concert at school. How many people there are not related to the kids performing? There are some people, of course, who come out and support our kids in everything they do. Sometimes you’ll see classmates come to watch their friends play an instrument or sing a solo. However, I’d wager that 90% of the audience is family, which is quite different from a sports crowd.
Is the reason for this that more people just like sports more than music or drama? That’s possible. Still, look at the big posters that are up in various locations, including my classroom, that have all the sports games listed for the year. In larger towns, each sport even has its own poster. Should we have posters up with all the band and choir concerts? How about when a musical or one-act is performed? Let’s list the speech meets too. Add the trap shooting dates and times as well as the competitive cheer performances. Will we run out of room? Absolutely, but that just means we should have another poster.
Let’s recognize all our extracurricular activities in equal ways. That sounds pretty good, right? Simple to do?
It might be, but then there are some other caveats that go with it. We hold our athletes to a high standard for behavior and grades, and we should do that for all the activities. Perhaps we already do, and we should continue, if so. Just like if someone gets caught vaping and misses time for a sport, that needs to be the case for all our students involved in something. If you’re in Knowledge Bowl and get caught, you should miss an equivalent amount of time. If your grades are failing, you don’t get to go to your speech meet.
Kids are good at all manner of activities. Not everyone is destined to be an athlete. We have students, though, who are the same level of greatness in their activity as the volleyball or baseball player who earns all-conference distinction. I know kids who are amazing at speech, dazzle on the stage for a play, and perform a musical piece to perfection through hours of work. This is just the same as working on your free throws or your pitching.
Professional athletes make millions of dollars, and maybe that’s one reason we pay so much attention to sports. Many kids have the dream of making it to the big leagues someday, but it’s a very small percentage that do. On the other hand, a student who’s very good at acting also has a chance to hit it big and make millions of dollars on television or in the movies. Again, the percentage is small, but let’s give those kids the same adulation as our athletes.
Come on up to the Waseca Marching Classic and watch our marching band this Saturday! Plan on attending the indoor concert in November and all the other concerts this year. Come see the one-act play, usually performed in February. Check out all the wonderful activities our students work hard at, and know that their activity is just as important to them as the Homecoming football game is on Sept. 27.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is eustress, which means a positive form of stress, as in, “The trumpet player felt eustress leading up to his solo, knowing that he was well-prepared and would wow the crowd.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!