Acts of Journalism
A School, Not a Sports Club
It cannot have escaped your notice that, at Dulwich College, sporting achievement is greatly praised. A whole magazine, the Sporting Alleynian, is devoted to sport (nothing else has this honour). Assemblies, particularly end of term ones, are filled with reports on how our sporting teams have fared recently (this being the majority of those assemblies). And, with perhaps one or two exceptions (and I stress: perhaps), our School Captain is a boy of great sporting prowess.
I do not mean to say that sportsmen are bad people, or that I do not respect them; they are good at something and work hard at it. Nor do I mean to say that Games lessons are unimportant; in the age of the expanding waistline, physical fitness is very important. However, Dulwich College is a school, an academic institution – it is not a sports club.
As an academic institution, its primary role is to educate. Everything else must be secondary to this. Sport, while worthwhile, should not come before lessons and sporting achievement should not come before academic achievement.
The reason for the first is due to the school’s role as a place of education. Sports must not be a reason for missing academic lessons. Scholarships should not be handed out for the sole purpose of strengthening our 1st XI, nor should places be offered for this reason. The money spent here should be spent recognising academic achievement and furthering the teaching potential of the College.
The reason for the second is one of messages. Much time and praise is given to sporting achievement, more so, in my opinion, than to academic achievement. This sends out the message to students that, at Dulwich College, sport is more important than academics. Here, at a school, where academic achievement ought to be, must be, held in the highest regard, sport is seen by many as the most important thing. This creates the impression that if someone isn’t good at sport, they are inferior to those that are. In a world already prejudiced in this way, the school is feeding this prejudice, a prejudice that any school should be stamping out. This is not idle speculation, this is fact, I have seen it.
My conclusion is this: academics, at school, must come first in all things; sport must be no more than an extra-curricular activity.
[Originally published in the DC Voice]
It cannot have escaped your notice that, at Dulwich College, sporting achievement is greatly praised. A whole magazine, the Sporting Alleynian, is devoted to sport (nothing else has this honour). Assemblies, particularly end of term ones, are filled with reports on how our sporting teams have fared recently (this being the majority of those assemblies). And, with perhaps one or two exceptions (and I stress: perhaps), our School Captain is a boy of great sporting prowess.
I do not mean to say that sportsmen are bad people, or that I do not respect them; they are good at something and work hard at it. Nor do I mean to say that Games lessons are unimportant; in the age of the expanding waistline, physical fitness is very important. However, Dulwich College is a school, an academic institution – it is not a sports club.
As an academic institution, its primary role is to educate. Everything else must be secondary to this. Sport, while worthwhile, should not come before lessons and sporting achievement should not come before academic achievement.
The reason for the first is due to the school’s role as a place of education. Sports must not be a reason for missing academic lessons. Scholarships should not be handed out for the sole purpose of strengthening our 1st XI, nor should places be offered for this reason. The money spent here should be spent recognising academic achievement and furthering the teaching potential of the College.
The reason for the second is one of messages. Much time and praise is given to sporting achievement, more so, in my opinion, than to academic achievement. This sends out the message to students that, at Dulwich College, sport is more important than academics. Here, at a school, where academic achievement ought to be, must be, held in the highest regard, sport is seen by many as the most important thing. This creates the impression that if someone isn’t good at sport, they are inferior to those that are. In a world already prejudiced in this way, the school is feeding this prejudice, a prejudice that any school should be stamping out. This is not idle speculation, this is fact, I have seen it.
My conclusion is this: academics, at school, must come first in all things; sport must be no more than an extra-curricular activity.
[Originally published in the DC Voice]
posted by CJM | 11:04 PM
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