Winners in the Game of Life

As part of his recap of this weekend’s high school football action, The Register’s Cody Goodwin mentioned the consecutive win streak of suburban schools over DMPS teams is now 115.   Just to be clear Ankeny, Centennial, Dowling, Johnston, Southeast Polk, Urbandale, Valley, and Waukee have beat up on East, Hoover,Lincoln, North, and Roosevelt 115 times in a row. In case you are wondering, Lincoln beat Urbandale 13 to 12 on August 28, 2008. This is a problem which has led some district officials to propose setting up a special classification for athletic competition limited to those schools with particularly high numbers of students of low socio-economic status. This proposal is debatable, but a much larger problem and tragic issue lies below the headlines on the sports page. City schools are lagging just as badly in the classroom. This chart shows two significant measures of academic progress: Reading proficiency and 4 year graduation rates.   ...

Friday night at our home opener against the Roosevelt Roughriders I was sitting a few rows behind our enthusiastic student section. While the small but mighty East High Marching Band was belting out the Star Spangled Banner, a thought randomly entered my mind. You see,  within the venerable Duke Williams Stadium  nearly the entire kaleidoscope of the human community stood respectfully shoulder to shoulder. This cross-section of the world's people walk through our hallways daily and on Friday nights during the Fall show their school spirit at the gridiron. Last night before my eyes were students of Nordic, West African, Southeast Asian, Central American descent as well as every other shade, hue, and combination.   I couldn’t help thinking, “Mr. President you cannot stop this change which is evidenced right here in front of me. The days of your America are over, you just don’t know it yet. Long after you are gone (and hopefully forgotten) this diverse mix of yo...

Monday my boss at East High School said something which I will remember for a long time and hopefully will influence me every day of this school year. The statement was simple, yet profound. “There are two types of school employees: Teachers and people who support teachers.” Wow! Let's just unpack this a little bit. The first thing to note is just the fact that teachers are rockstars . Every day students come to our building from every conceivable circumstance. Many of our young people do not get enough to eat or get enough restful sleep at night, have not been lovingly nurtured through childhood, are still learning English and acclimating to a new country, have a parent who is not participating in their upbringing, or have spent too much of the previous evening working at a job. Even the students who are raised in idyllic households are still dealing with the ambivalence and overwhelming stressors of young adulthood.   The teachers who greet each day them...

Today's blog post will be a departure from the normal focus on issues pertaining to high school student-athletes and coaches in order to take a unique look at a woman struggling to make her way in our community. Recently it’s become a pleasure to make acquaintances with a young woman who has been a student in the English Language Learner (ELL) class I’ve been teaching at a local non-profit.   She is definitely a Winner in the Game of Life. So what makes somebody a winner? The answer, in part involves overcoming difficult, some would say impossible, situations in order to maximize one’s life potential. Consider the following facts about this young woman… She was brought to the United States from a Southeast Asian nation to be an older man’s wife while still a minor. This is, of course, a thinly veiled and all too common form of human trafficking, child prostitution, and modern-day slavery. After a short period of time she bore a daughter to this man who ...

Last week the DMPS announced it would petition the state athletic governing bodies to study the possibility re-classifying schools in a manner which would take into account factors other than enrollment. The argument is that socio-economic factors have created an uneven environment for athletic competition. Cited as evidence was head to head football games over the last ten years between metro and suburban schools. During this time the suburban schools have won 92 consecutive games by an average score of 51 to 10. Ouch. “Ouch” doesn’t begin to tell the full story of vastly increased likelihood of injury when football teams are badly mismatched as well as the humiliation which occurs during these beatdowns. Something definitely needs to be done to rectify this situation. While football provides the most glaring and physically painful examples of an uneven playing field. Other sports programs, both boys and girls, suffer from similar disparities. Tragically, the achi...

To say the very least, the high school at which I work has some significant challenges. Every day ends with me being physically and emotionally exhausted and far too often I walk out of the building deeply discouraged. So when something positive occurs it is vital to my soul to dwell on that rather than the negative. Today’s blog post will pertain to some highly energizing recent experiences. The other day after school I’m at my normal supervision post (west door overlooking the student parking lot) and six boys walked out the door. Nothing exceptional here, right? What made it a highlight was these students were totally at ease, smiling, laughing, and enjoying each other’s company. Even better is the group included one Asian, one African-American, two Caucasians, and two Hispanic youths. With all the racial and ethnic hostility in every corner of our society, it was gratifying to see the diverse setting of East High School facilitating the friendships within such an unli...

Loved the Championship Friday format the IAHSAA piloted this year. Nice for a basketball junky to be able to watch all the title games (plus two consolation games) in one sitting. ……………………………………………………………………… I used to be nostalgic about Veterans Memorial Auditorium and was somewhat saddened when it was converted into a convention center, but Wells Fargo is a beautiful, functional, and comfortable venue. It’s also a thrill to play and coach in a big time arena. Good move Des Moines! ……………………………………………………………………… The Association should do everyone a favor and ditch the video from the Farm Bureau. It kills the pre-game vibe and NOBODY is listening to or watching the message.   We all know advertisements are how the bills get paid. Maybe consider playing the video while the kids are warming up. ……………………………………………………………………… It seemed like the public address sound system was turned down during the introductions of the color guard, national anthem singers, and halftime award...