I just cancelled my subscription to Sports Illustrated. When I was young, we always had Time, Newsweek and a handful of other magazines around the house. My grandmother was always a voracious reader. During times when I was bored, I would pick up those magazines and if not for them, I doubt I'd be able to read very well, today.
I got a subscription to Sports Illustrated because they were giving out a free promotional copy of Madden 12. I wanted that for Logan, anyway. So, it didn't really cost me anything additional to get the magazine for six months. I hoped that having it around the house would encourage him to read. It didn't work. Hahahaa!
When it comes to sports, he's clearly a doer, not a reader. His grades in reading are good, though, as are his grades in school overall.
This is one of those times where I just have to accept that what worked for me isn't necessarily going to work for him.
His travel basketball season is over except for a few tournaments that his coach may sign us up for in the future. I did sign him up to play a spring rec season that will only be six weeks long or so. I want him to have a little fun playing basketball. The nice thing about rec sports is that they're recreational. This will give him a chance to play basketball just for the fun of it.
Also, the other kids on his team will probably include a few of the kids he hangs out with at school just for fun. At least so far, he doesn't seem to hang with the jocks at school. I like his circle of friends, though. They seem to be a group that's exceptionally kind and accepting of each other.
Baseball workouts are going well. Logan looks pretty sharp. At this point, the trick is to try and keep an interest in baseball going, but without overloading him. We did no off-season workouts this year. I'm afraid that any more baseball beyond what's required and he'll be ready to quit. Not a world-ending event. He'll be fine if he choses to, for instance, run track or play lacrosse.
However, it would just be a shame. It's almost as if he doesn't realize how good he is in baseball. Maybe it's just the fact that I wish I'd been talented enough to play High School baseball and just hate to see a kid who is clearly good enough, but who doesn't seem to care all that much about the sport.
Obviously, that's no reason for him to have to play baseball. If he doesn't want to play travel next year, I'm okay with that. This will be his 3rd straight year of travel baseball and the kid is only 10 years old. Above all else, sports is supposed to be fun. I am hopeful that his new team this year will give him a little different, more fun-filled experience. If it doesn't, and he decides to play rec, then so be it.
It's not like he loses the ability to play baseball later if he plays a year or two of rec. It'll hurt his chance of playing High School ball, but he's got solid fundamentals from the coaching he's gotten over the past couple of years. We owe quite a debt to his coach, Dave. If Logan decides to get serious about baseball in his middle school years, he can probably get back on track.
All in all, I just want him to enjoy his High School experience, and I think playing sports, or getting involved in something, is a way to increase the chances of that. Doesn't even have to be sports. If he wants to be on the High School newspaper, then I'm fine with that.
Sort of like the other day when, much to my chagrin, he told me he wanted to be a rapper. He knows I hate rappers. (Okay, I don't hate them, but I sure don't like them.) I told him that was fine. He can do whatever he wants to do. If he wants to be a rapper, I just ask that he try to be a good one.
All in all, it's just sports. Sports are just games. Games are supposed to be fun. Once they stop being fun, it's time to find a new game.
Now, on the other hand, my cousin's husband, Clay, once said something to me akin to, "People will say that sports are not important for kids. But you don't hear them saying that math and english homework aren't important."
I actually agree with his point. I don't think that the physical aspects of the human being are less important than the intellectual. It's all in the same package. If I met, for instance, a person who had devoted their lives to the ballet, I'd find them to be as interesting and complete a person as somebody who studied nuclear physics. Their contributions to society would be different, but significant.
From a purely pragmatic standpoint, in a nation where childhood obesity is just a sorry state of affairs, I think it's important to tell kids they need to get out and move, too.
Show me a kid who half-asses his English homework and I'll say that kid is not necessarily destined for failure. Maybe he gives 100% at something else. We certainly forgive the kids who half-ass it on the athletic fields if they're doing well in their studies.
I'll just throw a different spin on it. I do think that if sports are your thing, you should go for it. Just as if english is your thing you should go for it. If music is your thing, you should go for it. All in all, though, it's not that sports is as important as homework... it's that homework isn't that important, either.
More important than learning what a gerund is, I think it's important that kids learn what it means to give 100% to something. THAT is the learning they need. You can take a kid who gave 100% on the gridiron or soccer pitch and nurture that drive into a successful career later in life. That link may be harder to trace than, say, a kid who loves science as a kid who eventually becomes a great engineer, but I think it's there. A great many successful people cultivated their drive, killer instinct and competitive streak by playing sports when they were young.
Yeah, there were also some dumb jocks in the bunch, just as the kid who excelled in English sometimes becomes an insufferable bore with no social skills. However, by and large, the kids who do well, with passion, when they're young, are better poised for success than kids who never tried hard at anything.
So, that is the life lesson in all this. Sports is supposed to be fun. However, the life lesson is to find something you love, nurture a passion for it, and pursue excellence in it. Playing baseball? I love the game, but it's just not that important. From a statistical standpoint, only an insignificant rounding error's worth of people ever play it past High School.
But discovering a passion? Pursuing your potential? That's the seed I hope to nurture.
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