Cheap Shot
Monday, March 06, 2006
After a long night of celebrating the GW Colonials victory over Charlotte, (oh wait, that was me as a cool undergrad...as a nerdy grad student I really spent the night doing homework), I awoke Sunday morning to this article in WaPo discussing the miseducation of Omar Williams, key starter for the team.
In a nutshell, the article discusses the issue of college players attending prep schools where they basically don't teach anything and just grant a diploma. Apparently there are around 5,000 prep schools that are not regulated because they fall outside the ed state dep guidelines (while some are among the elite in academic institutions, obviously others are not). Here's my question(s)
How is it possible that we have created an education system where KIPP schools, which are proven to be successful, are not allowed to expand...but these prep schools are allowed to pop up whenever and wherever? I mean, really...are we serious?
Oh...and did I mention that no one is being held responsible? The NCAA, claims that its the principals who provide them with the information, and that they have to trust them (So, it's the principals fault for lying and not the NCAA for failing to check the validity of the information?) The universities say that they receive the okay from the NCAA, so they don't question the schools (so...now it's the NCAA's fault, and not the universities for turning a blind eye?). Wouldn't it be refreshing for once if someone, anyone, turned around and said, "Yes, we made a mistake and now we're going to work together to fix this."
Because in the end, at the heart of this story, we as a community have failed this kid. And on the day after his big game win, he got to read a story about how he shouldn't have been there. We not only failed to provide a quality education and let him slip through the cracks, we also taught him that lying, cheating, and turning a blind eye are okay. As a future player in ed policy, that is not the message I want to be sending to kids. How about you?
