04-01-2017, 19:25
To be fair 0762, any sport that a kid does that requires coaching above normal levels ends up costing a lot of money for the parents. Whether it be equipment, time, travel, dues, hotels for tournaments etc etc. The commitment required from parents to get their kid into the right coaching for them to progress to regional level let alone national and international level is not just about the money, its really about time and simple ability to devote that time.
I am all for government trying to ensure that all kids have access to activities but in the past this has generally resulted in dumbing down the good schools and slightly raising the bad schools, therefore closing the gap but effectively diminishing the competitiveness of the sport as a whole and in the process penalizing those schools that are doing a good job. Schools also end up being able to offer the mass sports only, so a lot of the Olympic sports will never get taught at state schools, simply because of the money and expertise required to effectively coach a sport such as sailing. I would hazard a guess that there are virtually no schools, public or private that offer sailing as part of their sports curriculum, I am sure these athletes tend to come from families that are in to sailing to start with or have the resources for their kid to join a club outside of school and develop that interest, and I would imagine that is the case with a lot of sports.
At the end of the day, I think the public schools responsibility is to keep all children active by making PE mandatory, preferably on a daily basis, its not the responsibility of schools to create future Andy Murray's or Ben Ainsleys. If a kid shows aptitude then if that is a sport that the school has a team that plays competitively, then fine they can progress to that, but beyond that it will inevitably be a private institution that develops that kid to the levels required to be an Olympian. Unless the general public are prepared to pay much higher taxes to fund programs for more sports in schools than I don't see this changing.
I am all for government trying to ensure that all kids have access to activities but in the past this has generally resulted in dumbing down the good schools and slightly raising the bad schools, therefore closing the gap but effectively diminishing the competitiveness of the sport as a whole and in the process penalizing those schools that are doing a good job. Schools also end up being able to offer the mass sports only, so a lot of the Olympic sports will never get taught at state schools, simply because of the money and expertise required to effectively coach a sport such as sailing. I would hazard a guess that there are virtually no schools, public or private that offer sailing as part of their sports curriculum, I am sure these athletes tend to come from families that are in to sailing to start with or have the resources for their kid to join a club outside of school and develop that interest, and I would imagine that is the case with a lot of sports.
At the end of the day, I think the public schools responsibility is to keep all children active by making PE mandatory, preferably on a daily basis, its not the responsibility of schools to create future Andy Murray's or Ben Ainsleys. If a kid shows aptitude then if that is a sport that the school has a team that plays competitively, then fine they can progress to that, but beyond that it will inevitably be a private institution that develops that kid to the levels required to be an Olympian. Unless the general public are prepared to pay much higher taxes to fund programs for more sports in schools than I don't see this changing.