We’re at that time of year where heaven is the intersection of several sports.  At my house, the TV regularly switches between football, basketball and baseball, with the occasional volleyball game thrown in for good measure.  I watch these grown men and women essentially playing “games” where the competition is fierce and every move or play seems like it’s life or death.  There are winners and losers, heroes and villains.  There are amazing physical feats and sometimes the most awkward of errors.  But what gets me every time is how grown people, men in particular, can be turned into children playing these games.

Baseball for instance.  I watch these guys do their little ritual fist and chest bumps, their tandem celebratory moves when they run around some bases.  I watch them pile on each other when they win, spit on the ground, scratch wherever and whenever they need to, much like my kindergartners.  Jumping up and down, cheering when they win, crying when they lose, covering their heads with a towel or hoodie so others can’t see their moment of weakness, much like my 4th or 5th grade boys.

But it’s not only the boys.  Women’s volleyball is very confusing to me because they hug each other whether they score or not.  Just like my little girls in class who are always hugging each other or holding hands or doing each others hair.  It’s a girl thing I suppose.

I’ve watched basketball teams on the bench choreograph entire sections of movement for certain players or plays and everyone thinks they’re cool.  Imagine a group of accountants at the end of tax season doing the same thing.  We would think they had lost their minds.  Slam dunks are merely a stronger attempt at jumping up and touching the top of the door for guys.  Have you noticed that?  It’s a rite of passage and a time for high fives when you can finally reach the top of the door as you walk under.  The next step is a slam dunk.

Football is the ultimate however.  In no other sport do we pad people more than this sport and these are the biggest people usually playing the game.  They don’t need padding, they ARE padding.  What gets me though, in an environment where we’re trying to avoid concussions and kick players out for targeting is that a player makes a touchdown and everyone on his team pounds on his helmet in celebration.  These are people who CHOOSE to get run into and run into each other.  While it’s important to keep them as safe as possible, just like kids, these guys aren’t taking the future into account.  They’re playing a game.  Think about it, a job that’s really just a game.

Maybe that’s where we’re missing out.  Maybe if teaching were just a big game where we could have raucous celebrations and parents were the fan base cheering on their students and teachers, learning could be fun again.  I know a lot of teachers who say “I GET to play music all day”.  Truth is, yes, we do get to, based on essential learning outcomes, and assessments and behavior management.  Maybe if I got to participate in the ritual movement, spitting and patting each other on the behind, I could consider what I do a game as well.  I TOO could be a big kid and stop trying to act like an adult.

Maybe what we do could be televised with our fans spending hours watching us teach using Kagan or Anita Archer, oohing and ahhing every time a light bulb goes off in a student’s brain.  Buying merchandise  that says “I LOVE PUBLIC SCHOOLS”, creating entire man caves with our images.  But no, they would rather watch a close up of some catcher’s crotch while he uses some type of finger symbols to speak to his pitcher.  You know, I have kids that occasionally like to use finger symbols in my class.  Hmmm….

Don’t get me wrong.  Watching sports is fun and is a great way to pass the time with family and friends.  But just imagine if we could get people as excited about some things like education for instance, or voting instead of watching a bunch of big kids play with a ball.  Maybe if we paid more attention to the little kids than the big kids, some great things could be accomplished.