Most of my friends play fantasy football, but I’ve always resisted their peer
pressure and refused to join in. Nothing against it…just don’t want to spend the time.
This year, however, one of the dads started a kid’s league in the
neighborhood and my son joined. I watched the first games of the season with my son and his friend as they followed
their players and I noticed that it definitely changes how you see the
game. My son’s friend, Robby, is a huge Chargers fan and I watched in disbelief as he cheered after an incomplete pass
from Phillip Rivers to Vincent Jackson. We were losing the game and it would have been a touchdown for our team
but Jackson and Rivers were on his opponent’s fantasy team. He was actually rooting against his beloved
Chargers because the stats of individual players had become more important than the game.
In fantasy football, a player’s worth is solely based on their individual statistics. Much of what makes a player great, and a team
win, doesn’t show up on the stat sheet.
That block that set up the winning touchdown…forget about it because it
wasn’t my guy who scored. Mindlessly and obsessively tracking stats can lead to a shallow view of the game. As a basketball coach, I love to watch the player who rotates to provide defensive help, sets the proper angled screen to
free up the 3 point shooter, and blocks out the other team’s leading rebounder. Unfortunately, the majority
of fans watching the game (and everybody reading the box score in the paper) miss these crucial elements in the win.
Statistics just can’t properly measure the impact that a player has on the game.
The exact same is true when we turn school into a twisted version of fantasy sports
and place an over-emphasis on standardized testing. It leads to a shallow and narrow view of what
is important. I refuse to boil down the learning, growth, and development of my students into a statistic. Much of what is truly significant in the long run just doesn’t show on the “stat sheet” provided by test scores. For example, I would much rather have my kids leave my class not being racist and with the strength of character and courage to fight racism when they find it than to have memorized some facts about the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I’m not saying that you can’t have both, I’m just pointing out that only one of those things will be measured on the test and it isn’t the most important one.
Why have so many schools reduced the time and emphasis that they place on art,
music, and physical education? The answer is beyond simple…those areas aren’t measured on the all-important
tests. You know where those areas are measured…in LIFE! They help us to develop a richer,
deeper, and more balanced perspective. Never have we needed more of an emphasis on the development of
creativity than now but schools have gone the exact opposite direction and have
set off to make the best test-taking automatons that they can. Our economy no longer rewards people for
blindly following rules and becoming a cog in the machine. We need risk-takers, outside-the-box
thinkers, and entrepreneurs and our school systems are doing a disservice by
discouraging these very skills and attitudes.
Shut up, sit down, put the cell phone away, memorize these facts and fill in the bubbles.
Hey, this isn’t fantasy football! It’s not about raising statistics… it’s about raising and fulfilling human potential. Focusing on the stats leads to a lost perspective of what is truly important…the game.
Oh, and by the way, in the game I’m talking about we are all on the same team.
Dave Burgess