Through it all, I learned that sports aren’t bad. In fact, through organized sports a person can learn a lot about character, determination, and working with others.
This is where I must inject my sincerest apologies to the 1974 Widefield High School Athletic Department.
I had occasion to think about this as my daughter and I stopped in my Colorado hometown on the way to California. There is something about returning home and seeing your old high school. On the first few visits back you can feel longing for days long passed. Subsequent feelings can range from a return of teenage angst to intimidation, especially on seeing your old principal. Eventually, there may be a feeling of vindication, of “See, I came out of this place better than when I left!”
Widefield High School is still where I left it, although with 30-plus years of improvements and growth, it looks a whole lot different than it did in the early 1970s. As a high school student, I was a hippie throwback, born eight years too late, singly focused on peace, the environment, and the creative side of life. My interests leaned heavily toward music, art and writing. At the time, the school was experiencing a growth spurt, with too many kids enrolling too quickly and not enough room to house them all. I took many of my classes, like my journalism class, in portable trailers, and the art department was relegated to an area of the school that was more a barren workroom than an inviting studio.
During the fall of my senior year, word came of an impending bond issue, mostly to pay for the expansion of the athletic department. (I didn’t realize it at the time, but our high school had a pretty damned good one.) Student athletes back then were like the student athletes in my own kids’ high school: they pretty much ruled the school and (I felt) looked down on everyone else. There were very few athletes in my school who I could call my friends.
That's because it was apparent early in my school career that I made a terrible athlete. Try as I might, I was not blessed with grace, speed, or agility. Perhaps this is why I turned to music, painting, and writing as an outlet.
In my outrage over what I considered unfair treatment of the arts, I thought I would take this issue to the general public. Since I was a member of the school newspaper staff, I penned a particularly scathing editorial decrying the use of money for the football team, and lobbying for diverting some of the bond money to the poorly housed art department.
Article comments
1 - Lisa Solod Warren
Yeh, but Joanne, if the art department was, as you say, "poorly housed," then why were you wrong? Why wasn't there a bond issue for that? When was the last time you saw a bond issue to raise money for a new high school arts building? I never have. I am all for high school athletics, in their proper place. But being from the South and now living in the South, they have never been given their proper place. They are the be all and end all. They get the lion's share of the support. Many more people turn out for a football game than for any play or art show combined. And the only people who go to band concerts are the parents of the players. Trust me, as the parents of band kids I knew that first hand. On the other hand, I think more kids would like gym classes (which should be mandatory) if they were more interesting. Both my kids went to school in Europe where the gym or phys ed classes were changed up every six weeks and they were "taught" new sports (or rather got to experience them) and they had a blast, rather than just do the same old, same old in a smelly gym, as I did (but then that was a long time ago). My daughter, in her school, gets gym credit for participating in school sports, which makes sense to me.
2 - Joanne Huspek
Thanks for commenting.
The entire public school budget thing is really a huge monster of a mess, especially nowadays. Special interests on school boards often sway the public thinking (and money) to their pet projects, not unlike what goes on in the larger political arena. I've known of districts that pay for expensive trips for the administrators, will redo their offices, while the students don't have enough text books to go around. (Yes, this really happened. I know because a friend of mine was a mom who was especially diligent.)
It's a little different in private schools, where they try to balance all aspects of a school experience. I think that's vital. Even a good athlete can benefit from exposure in the arts. Plus, private schools have to make do with the money they have, and not count on the taxpayer to shoulder the burden.
My school had really talented musicians (one was in the band Flash Cadillac, which appeared on "American Graffiti"), others were gifted artists. Heck, even I won a creative writing award. :-)
It is too bad that those things weren't nurtured. But, you live, you learn.