Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 7, 1993 TAG: 9304070359
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
THE GAMES SCHOOLS PLAY
"IF IT WAS basketball," said Rocky Gap teacher John Dodson, "no one would stand for this."But it isn't basketball, it's an academic competition. Which means, under our society's current priorities, it's expendable.
Each year since 1985, a number - nine at first, up to 18 now - of Southwest Virginia high schools, mostly rural, have competed in a homegrown system of academic matches. Schools in the Mountain Academic Competition Conference field four-member teams that meet in regular-season matches to field questions in English, math, science, social studies and an all-around category.
Each year, the season is capped with a tournament. Rather, it has been capped. The 1993 tournament, originally scheduled for this week at Grayson County High School, may never come to pass.
The difficulty, say school officials, is twofold. Bad weather disrupted the schedule for regular-season matches. And while that might not be an insuperable barrier, another problem could be. The man hired to generate new questions resigned; the cupboard of questions is bare; coming up with the 640 needed for a full-fledged tournament can't be done at the snap of a finger.
Without folks like Fort Chiswell High School Principal Joe Bean, chairman for this year's competition program, and Rural Retreat High School Principal Gary Houseman, the program's secretary-treasurer, there wouldn't be any competition in the first place. So it's hard to cast much blame on them.
But Dodson, the Rocky Gap teacher, is correct. If it were basketball, any problems would have been fixed by now. The show would have gone on, because high-school athletic programs are relatively well-funded, well-established and highly organized. Academic competitions, in contrast, usually must fight for crumbs.
Why? Perhaps because sports are what the public wants as its first extracurricular priority, what the schools in response give to the public (and, yes, what the media then cover).
To be sure, the value of academic games can be overstated. Many of them, for example, put a premium on quick question-answering, which is not the only or surest sign of academic aptitude and application.
Even so, such games can help corral the competitive juices of high-schoolers and channel more of their energies into academic pursuits. They're fun, as well as educational. And the competitions needn't reward only regurgitation of facts. "Odyssey of the Mind," for instance - a popular and growing international competition - rewards teamwork, problem-solving and creativity.
By offering alternative forms of interscholastic rivalry, academic matches also can help counter the undue importance often placed on athletics.
In proper perspective, school sports are worthwhile and healthy endeavors. But proper perspective gets lost too easily. Meanwhile, academic games, which bear a closer relationship to preparation for adult breadwinning, struggle for any visibility at all.
Perhaps the 1993 tournament of the Mountain Academic Competition Conference can be salvaged. If not, at least let the difficulties this year lead to a more firmly established competition in future years. And let us at least ponder our priorities.