Public murals available for viewing all over Tucson – article from Tucson.com
I Love Where I Live

Personal web site views on Social Justice, Environment, Buddhism, Politics
Public murals available for viewing all over Tucson – article from Tucson.com
Here are some interesting ideas on how we learn, what keeps us from learning and progressing in a field of study, what kinds of tools we can incorporate in our learning to get beyond the frustration and resistance so many of us experience while learning.
Dr. Barbara Oakley wrote a great article for LinkedIn about her experiences of moving from one field of study, where she used different techniques to learn a foreign language, to a move later in a direction she had never considered – mathematics and engineering. Great article on how she found her way and pushed through, used her “beginner’s mind” to stay open to the possibilities.
Dr. Oakley describes her experiences and teaches an online course through Coursera, Learning How To Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects. I’m going to commit to setting aside time to take this online course. I don’t quite know the costs yet, but there is a certificate of completion that can be posted to LinkedIn profile.
I believe that extra-curricular athletic competion (team/intramural sports) has absolutely no place on high school campuses. I don’t have any personal interest in athletic competition (aside from watching the occasional local minor league baseball), but what galls me most is the time, energy, and money taken away from students reaching for scholastic greatness, achieving their greatest academic potential and goals and being flushed down the shower stalls in all the locker rooms across the country.
If we are serious about preparing students to compete with Japan, China, Korea and European countries, to be the best they can be, to mentally challenge themselves, why aren’t we focusing more on education and less on sports? What purpose do high school sports serve in our society? I think all sports (high school, college, professional) are about the entertainment for the beloved peepul. Of course, individuals participating in athletics believe that sports is all about the challenge, being their physical best–that’s great! Do it on your own time! I feel we aren’t getting the most bang for our education buck.
So what do I propose instead of school sports? City and/or county sports leagues! Students interested in athletic scholarships (oxymoron!) can still get recognition for their jock prowess and be scouted in city/county leagues — just not in school athletic programs. Sure coaches can still be employed — to concentrate on physical education classes during school, not athletic competition for schools, but for county leagues.
What are other issues of doing away with scholastic athletic programs?
What other benefits are there for doing away with sports?
All told, this country could see a rebirth in our school systems. Bill Gates was only partly right — I’m sure he was never involved in any type of athletic program during his high school career, so the amount of support and waste for sports has never crossed his mind.