The Maverick Principal — 09/05/2018

Mark Sonnemann
Sep 6, 2018 · 3 min read

Wednesday was about meetings and tweaking schedules and ironing out things. I didn’t get a chance to get out on the yard or into classes, so not my ideal day, but there are many small tasks required to make a school run smoothly and you ignore or put them off at your peril.

I did have an interesting conversation about sports though, that has me wondering a few things.

At our elementary schools, we start the year with soccer and cross-country and then move into volleyball and basketball and then finish the year with track and field (and in some cases flag football). Our schools are divided into divisions (West and East) because we are so large geographically. Schools are further subdivided by their relative size into two different groups. There are boys teams and girls teams, and in some cases mixed teams. Pretty standard stuff, I think.

The conversation we had started about teams, but turned into a discussion about what our vision was around athletics in a K-8 school. Because, when it comes right down to it, many schools haven’t really talked about this as a whole staff, and don’t really have any kind of shared understanding of what they are trying to accomplish.

This is a gap that I think we can work together on, and I think it is an important one to be able to articulate and share with the community. Do we, for example, believe that participation and fun are our most important goals? Do we believe that competition and success (in terms of wins and losses) is one of our core values? How can we make elementary sports inclusive? How big are our teams? How will we measure success (player experience, team goals, championships)? Just as important — how do we plan on dealing with conflict when it happens? How critical is accountability for our students? When should students lose the opportunity to play, or should they ever?

This lead to a larger discussion about how it might be possible to ‘hack’ elementary sports. Could we offer different opportunities (school tournaments, for example), field multiple teams, create new structures systemically that might allow us to hit a whole series of goals for kids? Could our vision be both wide and deep?

We also talked about whether this should be part of a discussion about balance in the school. Maybe the challenge wasn’t about athletics, but about creating more chances for students to shine in a whole host of ways?

I think this is a really important discussion, because it speaks to a challenge that our students will face as they grow into adults and engaged citizens. What is the definition of success? Are we helping kids to create an internal schema that allows them to be competitive and compassionate and inclusive?

This is a big conversation, and a wondering that will evolve over time. The first step is going to be gathering input from students and parents and staff about it and then sitting down to think and talk about what people are trying to tell us. I am thinking that this question, and others, will become part of a monthly poll I would like to include for our stakeholders — likely surveymonkey or somesuch, but not finalized at this point.

Thanks for a great day.

Mark Sonnemann

Written by

Dad, Husband, Learner, Catholic Principal. I never stop wondering, questioning, and imagining.

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