In the last column/blog, I shared some very quick scenes from my life’s movie.  These scenes all related to the role of athletics in my growth – in more ways than one.  One of the scenes involved meeting a (non-math!) colleague at a conference who suggested that we should pay more attention to The Three A’s in school/life:  Academics, Arts, and Athletics.  I’d like to play with that notion for a while.
One of the things I like about this suggestion is the obvious analogy to the “mind/body/spirit” trilogy that seemingly all health experts, psychologists, and spiritual leaders seem to suggest is important to strengthen and keep in balance in our lives.
So, does that analogy fit in our education system? Does it provide a broader view of ‘education’ than we’re used to?  After all, the ‘three R’s’ most of us grew up with (reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic) focus primarily (though not entirely) on Academics, don’t they?
I don’t think this is a new notion.  Indeed, if anything, I think we used to have that more balanced view of education, and we’re getting away from it, rather than moving toward it.  Clearly, we still focus on the ‘head’: academics.  But for whatever reasons (all too often financial ones), schools are de-emphasizing ‘the arts’ (the spirit), and ‘physical education’ (the body).  That may be penny-wise, but it seems dollar-foolish.
[By the way, let’s clearly distinguish here between physical education – athletics – in a broad sense, including sports, and its burly cousin ‘Big Time Athletics’, which is usually more about money than sports and is often a case of the cart pulling the horse.]
This increasing de-emphasis of the body/spirit part of our students’ education is alarming, and seems to be detrimental to all concerned.  We’ve all read the studies of the obesity problems that are so prevalent with our youngsters.  Would increased awareness of the importance of healthy fitness (to students and parents) not be a wise topic to reinforce in our schools?  Perhaps this also means an overhaul of ‘required PE classes’, but, as a society, we need to urge students to more activity and better physical health.
Likewise, the arts.  Not every student will become an artist or a musician or a poet or a writer or fill-in-the-blank.  But some will, and more could.  And they must have that outlet and opportunity.  We’ve said this before, but other cultures and societies, past and present, value their poets, their artists, their writers, their musicians above all others for their ability to touch us, to awaken us, to keep us attuned to what is real and what matters in life.  In other words, to nurture our spirit.  Can it be coincidence that the decline of ‘the artist’ (and his/her value) in our society these days seems to correspond to the decreasing emphasis in these things in our schools?
Academics.  The Arts. Athletics (in the purest sense).    All three are important.  All three affect us greatly, as well as our ability to ‘make a life’ as opposed to only ‘making a living’.  To forget that fact, or to get the three out of balance, is dangerous – in our lives, certainly, but also (maybe especially) in our schools.  Whatever we call it, perhaps we should continue to remember that the idea of Three A’s continues to be as – if not more – important than the notion of the Three R’s.