Congratulations to the LOHS Football team. A top four finish is a great achievement and a testament to the hard work and passion of the players, coaching staff, parents, and fans.
But are we as psyched about our freshman honor trio who will sing at the State finals on January 17? How many of us went up to Ford Field on Nov. 3 as the marching band won 2nd place at the state competition? Who went to Stadium Drive Nov. 1 to watch the fifth graders perform Treasure Island? Will we turn out en masse’as we did for the nail-biter against Clarkston’for the winter Choir Concert on Dec. 13?
To be sure, sports bring tremendous advantages like strength, stamina and lifelong health benefits. Striving for a common goal, learning to solve problems, compromising to advance the group, the relation of sacrifice to excellence’these life skills will never lead our children astray.
But surely compromise and sacrifice are part of a young thespian’s life, too. Do you think the LOHS marching band could have achieved their great marks this year without a strong sense of team?
The point is not that sports are without value. However, when we turn out by the thousands to cheer on our gridiron guys but are then conspicuously absent from the Middle School Cabarets (Dec. 6,13, 19), we are declaring these artistic endeavors to be of lesser value.
I doubt if any of us really desire a world without creativity, but we vote with our feet. By failing to show our support for the kids who are not sinking the game-winning 3-pointer, we send the message to our kids that their braun is more important to us than their brains. We inadvertently tell our kids that expression and creativity is not as important as their physicality, when a healthy balance is what we really want for them.