Greetings from Dallas, Texas! On Thursday, following the matinee of Sally Cotter and the Censored Stone - which was amazing – my daughter and I flew down to Dallas for a weekend lacrosse tournament. For most of you, this may seem crazy – flying to Dallas for a weekend of lacrosse with a 15 year old. Just typing it has me thinking it’s absurd. But, for those in the girl’s high school lacrosse world, and the roughly 3,000 sophomore and junior girls participating in this event, it is well understood that The President’s Cup tournament is a very big deal. For my daughter, she loves it all – and I love watching her play, but does make me wonder about the commitment levels of today’s youths.
Just this week, we discussed the same general topic at our faculty meeting. We were observing that many of our students were fully engaged with schoolwork, the play, a climbing competition, a robotics competition, and any of a number of other things outside of school. On one level, the students love the opportunity to engage, and I am excited that they choose to participate in such a positive manner. On the other hand, I worry that they are overextending themselves and becoming both worn down and developing a false sense that they must constantly be “doing.” As a faculty we had a great discussion. While we did not come away with any solutions, we all agreed that we really needed to watch the kids, and support them if it seemed that they were overwhelmed.
Through the years, this is how I have proceeded with my daughter – I am constantly trying to monitor her physical and mental well-being and try to make myself accessible if she needs me. To this point, it appears that all of her many commitments seem to energize her and make her happy. Likewise, it seems that even as our students were tired and a bit emotional, the multiple commitments, like classes, the play, etc., seems to also feed their emotions in a positive manner.
Going forward we will continue to monitor this and to think about our community expectations in this domain. If you have thoughts on this matter, I hope that you might join us at an upcoming Coffee with Rick and share them. If unable to attend a Coffee with Rick, you can always send me a quick email or just pop in the office.
In the end, the play was amazing, I heard that the Robotics team qualified for States, and the climbers have yet to let me know how they did. I hope that everyone finished the trimester well and I look forward to conferences tomorrow. As a side note, my daughter and her team are playing great so far, and we are enjoying our time together in Big D!
Enjoy the rest of the weekend!