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Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009

Attitude about school needs makeover

By Jay Adams

jadams@macon.com

It’s the time of year when education gets gaffer-taped, tied up and slung in the trunk to be neither seen nor heard. Meanwhile, money’s in the driver’s seat, athletic potential is in the passenger seat and sports fans tend to take up all the room in the backseats.

Yeah, it’s a tough time of year to be education with high school athletes making a spectacle out of which college scholarship to accept and college athletes deciding that a final year of college is their worst option on the table.

Education is taboo this time of year. No one wants to talk about it. Instead, the focus is on how much money a player could receive, what team he could choose to play for or be drafted by and what type of impact a player will have at the college or professional level.

It’s just the way our sports society has been formed through the years. After all, it’s impossible these days to drive down the street and see little kids playing around with the Wall Street Journal, harboring dreams of earning that MBA at a prestigious school.

Instead, most kids dream of the days when they’ll be able to sit in front of five hats, throw four of them aside like garbage and choose one to signify the college scholarship they will accept. Or they dream of leaving college early because everyone and their sister convinces them that money is going out of style and that there will be none left next year.

Sports certainly have their place in society and certainly in the minds of young children. But sports aren’t the culprit here anyway; it’s the mind-set behind some of the decisions high school and college athletes make, which is fueled by a rabid base of fans that can only concern itself with education long enough to ensure that the next big star has qualified academically and media members focused more on some of the aforementioned “prizes” that stem from locking education in the trunk.

That focus is way off base. High school athletes — who should be honored and humbled by the offer of a full ride to any accredited college or university, let alone several — should determine what school offers them the best chance at a successful future outside of sports.

For college athletes, the emphasis should lie on finishing what they started and earning a degree.

That’s not to say that the high school athlete who chooses the school that desperately needs help in the secondary isn’t going to get a proper college education, or that the college athlete who leaves school early doesn’t have a chance to finish school and earn a degree. It’s just sad that the issue of education gets brushed under the rug when these topics come up.

The fact is, education — in the long run — is going to mean more to most student-athletes than their playing careers. After all, the world is filled with athletes who didn’t take education seriously enough and befell the consequences of such an attitude.

It’s time to change that attitude and push the issue to the forefront. It’s time to make education important again.

Contact Jay Adams at 744-4401 or jadams@ macon.com