LeBron’s Departure Great Reminder: Kids Are Going to Take Their Cue from Us

I have written recently in this space about social learning theory and the importance for parents, teachers and coaches of remembering that kids learn as much (if not more) from what we do than from what we say.  Connie Schultz’s column in this week’s Plain Dealer, “Clevelanders Need to Act Like the Grown-ups in the LeBron James Saga,” offered a wonderful example of level-headed moral leadership in the face of disappointment, in the person of Dr. Shelley Senders, a wonderful Cleveland-area pediatrician.  Check out Connie’s column and Dr. Senders’ open letter to this son.

Common Sense Media

Millions of parents have been counting on www.commonsensemedia.org for help in making decisions about what movies to take kids to for years.  If you haven’t used it yet, take a look at the site next time you’re not sure about whether a movie Junior’s begging to see is in your comfort zone.  What I appreciate about the site is that rather than tell you what you should think, the site’s “Common Sense Reviews” simply alert readers to everything they might be concerned about, so parents can make informed decisions.

For today’s post, I want to steal—I mean share—from the website’s most recent newsletter a great little piece called “5 Ways to Unplug on Vacation.”  A tech free vacation sound impossible?  Check it out.    

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the benefits and drawbacks of requiring the whole family to “unplug” for a week on vacation.  Click here to share your experiences.

Safe travels,

Tim

Want to Get Better at Sports? Better Turn on the TV

You won’t very often hear a teacher urging parents to plant their kids in front of the TV, so savor this one:  Parents, if you want to help your kids get better at a sport, consider having them watch more TV.

Everybody knows by now that American kids watch too much TV and get too little exercise, leading to increased rates of childhood obesity and of related diseases such as diabetes.  Not only are kids not playing actively enough, but to make matters worse, they’re not even watching sports.  And so we have the phenomenon of a generation of kids whose parents are signing them up for teams in sports their kids really know very little about.

How do I know this?

Well, for starters, I coach little league baseball.  I may not be the sharpest guy around, but it didn’t take too many repetitions of watching 10-year-olds told to “play 2^nd base” run out and stand on the 2^nd base bag to realize that some of these guys never watch baseball.  As a lover of the game, I was astounded and saddened by this revelation.  It was tempting to be frustrated with their parents for signing them up for a sport they don’t understand—baseball is a very complex game—there’s only so much you can teach in a dozen practices.  But then I realized, I, too, have been guilty of being one of those parents.

My son has been playing soccer for five years, and it wasn’t until about a year ago that we watched our first professional soccer game togetheron TV.  In fact, for years I bragged to friends that we are soooo not a TV family that we didn’t even have cable.  Watching my son play soccer helped to change our non-cable status.  Why?  Because while there is no substitute for practicing and playing, watching a sport played at the highest level can have a significant positive impact on a developing player at any level.

Allow me to offer myself as a humble example.  I never played soccer as a child, and most of what I know of the game has come from watching my son play and kicking the ball around in the back yard together.  I am proud to say that over the years his instruction has helped me to elevate my foot sills, my ball control, and my accuracy to a respectable level for a clumsy 40-something.  But I can also testify that being glued to coverage of the World Cup this month has helped me to take my skills to a new level.  Why?  Because I have had a chance to watch excellent players do amazing things with their bodies, and I have been inspired to try some of the moves I’ve observed and admired. 

There’s been much debate in the age of steroids and ego-mania about whether professional athletes are worthy role models for young people.  But one thing is sure:  seeing an amazing athlete do something you weren’t sure was even possible, and being inspired to turn off the TV and go try it—that’s a good thing.  What’s more, team sports are dynamic and complex, and repeated watching—especially in the company of someone who knows the game well—may be the best way to pick up the nuances of how a particular sport works.

So next time you’re tempted—as I am—to shout “Turn off that TV and go outside!” consider sitting down next to your son or daughter and flipping to ESPN for a while first. 

And then turn off the darn TV!

Bring the Oil Spill Into the Classroom

The University of Minnesota this fall will offer a course entitled “Oil and Water: The Gulf Oil Spill of 2010.”  According to Miranda Taylor’s article in The Minnesota Daily, “the class will address the current crisis in the Gulf of Mexico by educating students on the history and ecology of the Gulf, the makeup of the Louisiana economy and the impact of past oil spills on humans and the environment.”

What a fantastic idea, an idea that ought to be replicated in thousands of classrooms—and at millions of dinner tables—across the nation.

One frustration a lot of kids have with school is that they have a hard time seeing a connection between what they’re being taught and what matters in their lives.  Although we don’t always use them well or purposefully, bringing in “current events” offers potentially rich opportunities to help kids to feel the relevance they need.  Sadly, a current event of the magnitude and duration of the current oil spill crisis represents a golden opportunity for teachers at every level.

Every year millions of students across the nation write research papers.  Pause for a moment to imagine some of the possible, unplannable positive consequences of having all those millions of papers address this single environmental and economic calamity.  In my fantasy, a student in Omaha comes up with a creative clean-up solution that his teacher passes on to a friend at the EPA.  And a group of camp friends from throughout the Pacific Northwest use Facebook to launch a grassroots movement demanding both a personal and a national commitment to alternative energy. 

Who knows what might happen?  I say it’s worth a try.