How many times have you wanted to tell a student you are not making it to the NBA? In the communities our students live in and go to school the success stories are limited, the hopes are squashed fast, and the temptations lurk around every corner. Students grow up in these communities, watching their families, neighbors, and friends fall into similar downwards patterns. Our students want to be more successful than what they see every day, but do our students fully understand what opportunities there are in life? When I ask students what they want to do after graduation the common responses are NBA/NFL player. At 17, my students still believe a scout will show up to a game, notice their hidden talent, and scoop them out of their community. Doesn't matter they aren't even on the team because of attitude. A Few students often say they want to be probation officer or nurse. I admire and respect the people that hold these positions, but how do I push more students to respond with lawyer and doctor? How do we get more students to reach for higher, realistic goals. Furthermore, how do we get students to not just reach for them, but obtain them? Read more about the NFL dream after the jump.
The NFL/NBA dream is a problem. At 17 these students still believe they can make it out through sports. No scouts have come to see them, they have no championship titles, some barely even play, yet they still hold on to this unrealistic idea that they can make it with sports. Why not their own intelligence and ability, which is far more likely to benefit them long-term. Students take sports practice more serious than actual class. Practice is when it is time to be serious, not math, history, or english class. The success stories students see in their communities or on TV are from sports.
We have to start by showing our students other areas of success. I was talking to my class about traveling home on a plane. “Do your ears really pop” my student asked. “Yea, is that a real thing? I heard about it.” another asked. After a quick poll 12 of the 18 students in the room had never been on a plane and most had never been outside of Texas or Oklahoma. Many rarely even leave the area around our school. I have always enjoyed traveling and was lucky to be able to use my job money in high school to travel during vacations. By college I had witnessed many different cultures, met people from all over, and had an idea about different lifestyles and opportunities that existed. My students do not. Many haven’t seen different levels of lifestyle or success. They see the community they live in and do not know what else exists.
How do you set a goal for more when you don’t understand what is available? Second, how do you care about a goal if you have no means or support in reaching it? If we can not only show our students the potential jobs, schools, and lifestyles there are, but also EMPOWER them to feel they can reach these goals, think of the drive and motivation we can instill in them. Our schools need to have these conversations because not all communities show the best example. If we want students to take school seriously we have to show them why. While students continue to cling on to the faint dream of sports, they fail to push themselves in other areas of their lives and miss actual opportunities. We need to break the idea that they need to be the next point guard to be successful, and we need to break it now. Otherwise in two years I am going to have a lot of high school graduates sitting by their mailbox waiting for the scout letter that will never arrive, perpetuating the cycle the exists in their community.
We have to start by showing our students other areas of success. I was talking to my class about traveling home on a plane. “Do your ears really pop” my student asked. “Yea, is that a real thing? I heard about it.” another asked. After a quick poll 12 of the 18 students in the room had never been on a plane and most had never been outside of Texas or Oklahoma. Many rarely even leave the area around our school. I have always enjoyed traveling and was lucky to be able to use my job money in high school to travel during vacations. By college I had witnessed many different cultures, met people from all over, and had an idea about different lifestyles and opportunities that existed. My students do not. Many haven’t seen different levels of lifestyle or success. They see the community they live in and do not know what else exists.
How do you set a goal for more when you don’t understand what is available? Second, how do you care about a goal if you have no means or support in reaching it? If we can not only show our students the potential jobs, schools, and lifestyles there are, but also EMPOWER them to feel they can reach these goals, think of the drive and motivation we can instill in them. Our schools need to have these conversations because not all communities show the best example. If we want students to take school seriously we have to show them why. While students continue to cling on to the faint dream of sports, they fail to push themselves in other areas of their lives and miss actual opportunities. We need to break the idea that they need to be the next point guard to be successful, and we need to break it now. Otherwise in two years I am going to have a lot of high school graduates sitting by their mailbox waiting for the scout letter that will never arrive, perpetuating the cycle the exists in their community.
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