Athletics vs Academics

Are Your Kids On The Right Track?

Education means different things to different people. In my mind, education is a whole made of parts that includes not only academics, but also athletics (in which I include extra-curricular activities), and life experience. Athletics tones the body, education tones the mind. To be healthy and fit, we need to keep both the mind and body in shape, and also take the time to reflect, relax, and rejuvenate.

Can academics by themselves achieve this? Can athletics alone achieve this? I don’t think so. Academics give us ‘living skills,’ trains the mind to think logically and to analyze. Athletics gives us ‘life skills’ such as teamwork and camaraderie.

As an individual who has lived in three different continents and cultures, I have seen the pendulum swing to both extremes. In the Asian sub-continent in general, academics is the primary focus, in the western countries, athletics is often given more significance than academics: at times turning into intense competition in both situations. Either extreme can be unhealthy and unproductive with a high burnout rate.

As parents we spend a great deal of time and money on athletics, driving our children to practices and watching the games. I have heard of parents spending up to $1600 a season and traveling as far as Santa Barbara for their eight-year old child who plays club soccer. How many such kids will actually make it as professional athletes? Could they not develop some of the life skills by playing with children in the neighborhood?

Do we spend - or are we even willing - to commit and support at similar levels the academic growth of our children? Frequently not: we take our child’s academic development for granted and pass this responsibility onto the teachers. With class sizes constantly increasing, children cannot receive the individualized attention they need. What if we invested half or even a third of the time spent on athletics into our children’s academic enrichment? Would not such a reinvestment provide a better return in the long run?  The balance seems off. 

Parents should take the time to do a cost-benefit analysis of their children’s activities. And by that I certainly don’t mean only a financial analysis. We must also consider the social, moral, and educational benefits each individual child receives from each activity. Every child has the potential to do a range of tasks and activities, some more efficiently and effectively than others. Parents need to recognize this and allocate time to their children’s activities accordingly.

The ultimate goal in any society is progress, research, and innovation. Life changes every minute and our children need to be prepared to handle and effectively manage change. It is time for us to realize that we need to find a balance between academics and athletics. How a child’s time should be divided between the two depends on the individual child, but anything more than a 40-60 or 60-40 could be at the tipping point of the balance.

Our thanks to Geeta Batra, Center Director at Mathnasium in Irvine, for this article.