I keep hearing on the TV news that many kids are dropping out of school because their sports program has been shut down. It just happens that this blog will reveal a different position.
Many years ago I took a job in Argentina and moved my family down there. My kids were school age so I enrolled them in school there. It just happens that Argentina has a very good school system and they have one of the highest literacy rates in the world. When my kids got home after their first day in school, I asked them if they enjoyed playing "soccer " today in school. I was surprised when they told me that they did not play any sports in school. My reaction what that there was something very seriously wrong with the schools in Argentina. They must be backwards for not having sports in schools. Everyone had sports in schools, so why not Argentina?
That was my first reaction, until I learned that they had more sports than we had in the USA, but it was in "Clubs" rather than in their schools. In the USA, when most kids play their last football game as a senior, it is the last time in their lives that they every have on a football uniform. In Argentina, kids play sports in clubs in different age groups up thru their lives. The bottom line is that Argentina has a much better and much more healthy sports program than the USA which is dominated by the schools.
Now, we have to ask, "Why are kids dropping out of school because the lack of sports/" It is because the public schools unions have crushed private sports clubs, just like they have declared war on Charter Schools. Public school teacher's unions are the problem! Kids want to participate in shorts. That is a fact. What Argentina has done is what most other countries in the world have done is to separate sports from schools. That way, the schools can focus on education and sports clubs can focus on sports. if schools are closed due to Covid-19, the sports clubs can still operate normally.
If you follow this, then I think it is clear that we need to get sports and PE out of schools and it will take each of us to do our share to make this happen.
