I first heard an educator use the term specialization at a boarding school in New England in about 1997. This person asked me, "what are you doing at North Shore Country Day about specialization." I told them, we don't believe it and our families don't either.
I cannot say that we have been as unified on that topic over the last 10 years. But this blog has railed against sports specialization and stuck up for our schools belief in developing well rounded athletes.
Tonight one of our own -- Peter Callahan -- will compete for an NCAA national championship in the 1500m. Peter was a multi-sport athlete throughout his years at North Shore. I think that background has aided his success.
When I first started writing about the problems with sports specialization, I had many take issue with me. Now I have less and less as the evidence seems to indicate that for the vast majority of our kids, they should not specialize. They should take breaks from their sport and change every season.
Here is a great video that came out this week that is a MUST WATCH on the topic.
Play from Ryan Hagen on Vimeo.
No comments:
Post a Comment