Tuesday, November 18, 2008

An Interest of Conflicts

A student approached me today and said that her softball coach told them to always put softball first. He said that if they are involved in other things, softball should take first priority. She questioned him saying, "but we have choir practices, mostly in the mornings, but sometimes after school." He replied with "Mr. Cater and I are like this (fingers crossed in the air), I can talk to him. We are fraternity brothers." Now, this is true. The middle school softball coach, who teaches at the high school, is one of my fraternity brothers. That's not what I want to discuss. It got me thinking about conflicts between extra curricular activities. It happens to every choir teacher. I want to have one after school rehearsal, and fifteen kids say they can't come because of soccer, basketball, cheerleading, wrestling, etc.
I'm still working these things out in my mind, but shouldn't there be some sort of universal rule about this? I say yes. Here's my crack at said universal rule:
A game takes precedence over a practice. If I want to have a choir practice, and a student has a soccer GAME, the student should go to the game. Likewise, if I've got a concert on a day when a student has a cheerleading PRACTICE, I get the student at my concert. The trouble comes when I need a student for a practice, and she's got another practice. Here, I defer to the frequency and importance of the practice. These two variables have an indirect relationship, meaning that the less frequent a practice occurs, the more important that practice is. If she has softball practice every day, and I only ask for one extracurricular practice every now and then, shouldn't my practice come first? Lastly, we come to a variable that carries much weight: proximity to performance. If it's just a soccer practice, but the soccer game is the next day, soccer practice wins. I ought to publish these rules. I think it's fair. I'd love to hear what you think.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have thought about your rules and have decided that they are completely fair. These rules should be followed. "should" is the operative word. Take your stand--Arts are just as important in a child's life experience as sports. Too bad most coaches don't see it that way. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

When I was young I sang in the choir at church and I played pop warner football. Choir practice was Thursdays at 3:30. Football practice was everyday at 3:30. On Thursday, I rode my bike to choir with my football pants and cleats on and my shoulder pads over the handle bars. Then rode my bike to FB practice. Coach new I had choir and never tried to stop me. Since I was the only fullback, I had some clout with the team. It all worked out and I enjoyed the best of both activities. It was FUN ola!!!