School v. athletics: The NCAA and the student-athlete myth.

I went to St. Mary's College in Moraga, CA. We didn't have a football team. It was deemed too expensive for a liberal arts college - both because of scholarships and equipment and time. I liked that about the school (not that the basketball team doesn't take up a lot of SMC's time - just not as much as football). There was the appearance of emphasis on education - and there was a huge emphasis for almost all students.

That's not true at most colleges. Most colleges, with football teams, have this whole "student-athlete" identifier. Don't lie, they are athletes first and students second. Any of them will tell you they put more emphasis and time into athletics than school. Just like anyone who has ever worked out can tell you - to be in that kind of shape it takes time and dedication.

The Northwestern football players - who have the highest graduation rate in the NCAA football major schools - recently sought to unionize. And shocker - the judge agreed with me. The football players are primarily athletes and students second. Because (reasons aren't listed here in order):

1. They bring in a huge amount of financial benefit for the school.
2. They are asked to schedule their classes and activities - even when required for their major - around football.
3. They spend more hours working on football and football related things than school.
4. They are subject to special conditions that other students aren't subjected to.
5. Their scholarships can be canceled at any time for non-academic related issues.

According to a judge, that makes them eligible to unionize.

And that's a good thing?

I personally think that athletics should be taken out of school. America is the only place in the world where athletics and school are so intertwined. We don't have a club system or development system. We use our schools for that. And it makes our schools worse.

But is unionizing the right step? Maybe. It might give football players a fighting chance to earn degrees and impose some conditions on their scholarships that they otherwise wouldn't have gotten. Why should they have to lose their scholarship just because they busted an arm in a game - doing something their coach told them to do. If they do their jobs right they can lose their scholarship because of injury. If they do their jobs badly they can lose it for under-performance. Who knows if they will take this step and use it as a starting point for being more students than athletes - rather than just negotiating their athlete conditions.

Maybe unionizing is the right step. Maybe not. But I'm hoping this will start encouraging other people to see that schools in the US are more about sports than academics - at least in a lot of cases. Maybe this will open the door to a discussion on the role of sports in schools - which are supposed to teach academics.

We shall see.

Link to articles discussing the ruling:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/03/26/northwestern_football_union_nlrb_says_players_can_unionize_because_they.html

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/10677763/northwestern-wildcats-football-players-win-bid-unionize

Workout update #3

It turns out I'm stronger than I thought. I was, got most of the month, dead lifting at 95#. Turns out I can do 155#. 

How did I find out? The Crossfit 14.3 workout had that in there. I even managed a few reps at 215#. So that's my amazing workout news. 

I'm feeling stronger and better. Thanks to an amazing dog who I have to walk and run with, I'm able to do more sprints in a morning walk than I could a month ago. On our two mile walk/jog I normally got 4 sets of 30 second sprints in. Now I can do 10. For someone who can't run because of structural foot problems, that's a lot of sprinting. Unfortunately for Buzz-the dog- while I'm panting he's still yawning. 

I'm down two jeans sizes since January. It feels good to use that as the easier of my success. 

So I'm well on my way to meeting my fitness goals. Maybe this summer I'll actually look nice in a tank top- some definition in my arms. 

Karate tournament.

Medals!!! Lots of medals at the tournament. 

My children participated in their first karate tournament - Taekwondo tournament - on Feb 22. It was a tournament between the Pacific 5 Star schools - which includes our school - Anatolia Family Taekwondo.

My kids did great!!! They both did their best. So much of a tournament depends on what bracket you are placed in, and this was no different.

I also competed - but I went with the black belt women. It confirmed my desire not to compete anymore. However, since I'm an instructor, I'm supposed to compete and be a good example. I just don't like to compete anymore. I took 3rd in forms and lost in the first round in sparring - which is fine by me. I'm older, and don't want to spar that much anymore. I have to take care of my family and myself. Sparring can - but not always does - mess with those abilities.

I worked the whole tournament. In staging and judging so that the tournament could run well. Good thing I wore my tennis shoes - my feet were hurting by the end of the day.

Here are some great pics from the tournament:

Abby sure can kick. She has great extension.

Getting a good luck kiss from me before she competes.

Nicholas was way too cool for a good luck kiss or hug. But he got out there with his mean face and tried his best.

Medals!!!! He's so awesome.

This was Nicholas' bracket. 

Aunt Debby and Grandma came to watch the tournament. So did Dad.

Kiddos and me right before I had to leave and go judge another ring. I had to work the whole time as a judge - but I got to see my kiddos.

WOW museum.

Jon had 2/17 off so we went to the WOW Museum in Lodi - http://wowsciencemuseum.org/

Smaller science museums can be hit or miss, be we all really liked this one. It is about a 30 minute drive from where we live. We ate breakfast, and piled into the car and off we went. Happily, the kids napped on the way down. It's always nice when the kids nap in the car. Then the adults can listen to what music they want, and talk, all without the children trying to hop into the conversation.

They had a little store that was off to the other side of the museum - which was nice. You didn't have to get to the exit by going through the store - and you didn't have to walk in through the store either. Both things were very, very nice. Especially when your kids really like to buy science things that are in science stores in science museums.

We started off together at the flight simulator. Then we started building cars. Nicholas hung out and built cars for about an hour. Abby went to various other stations while Nicholas was building cars. Jon even hung out at a puzzle stations trying to figure out the puzzles.

Nicholas liked the Dominoes too.

One of the best things about this museum is that it is small - yet high quality. You can be on one side of the museum and still see -and hear - your kid on the other side. It's fabulous. So Jon could work his puzzles, Nicholas could build cars, and Abby and I could play Dominoes.

Abby played with the magnetic blocks too. A lot.

We stayed for a while. Nicholas would've happily stayed all day. But Abby went into the kids' area and started laying down on the floor - which meant she was tired.

So after a few hours of play we went home. It was a great stop. We will totally be visiting this museum again.

Can you tell what Abby's favorite thing to do was? She liked that this machine blew her hair up when she pointed it into her face. It was supposed to teach about Bernoulli's Principle, but she just thought it was fun.