Coach Carter : Sports and Education

Teachers, coaches and parents have a role in guiding the young generation on how to carry on with their lives by insisting on what is best for them. Every teacher and parent wants to see students leading a successful and brighter future. As seen through Coach Carter, discipline is fundamental to the success of all students. This made him sign contract with students that they would only participate in sports if they can attain a mean grade of C, respect one another including their elders as well as putting on suits and ties on sports day. This was because there is a tendency of young people to neglecting what is expected of them like education for sports. Letting them to know what is expected of them as students and youth, thus, becomes a role of parents, coaches and teachers. These roles, however, diverge in that teachers and coaches play their roles at school while parents play their roles a home. This is because parents spend more time with their children at home while coaches and teachers spend more time with them at school. Coaches and teachers normally set goals in which they intend to achieve. This is as opposed to parents where most of them do not set goals for their children. Some of the parents send their children to school as a routine and never cares about their performance or discipline. This is because they spend a little time with them due to their busy schedules. The intersection of their roles appears through the techniques they use. These methods include encouragement, discouragement, teamwork, discipline and second chances are used by all. This is usually done by reminding these young people of their skills and capabilities with the aim of motivating them. At the same time motivation is also done by discouragement on what they are not capable of, and what is not expected of them. Education should come first before sports. Therefore, education is better than sporting activities for a young person if both are not well balanced. One can have a brighter future with education while in sports, even when one becomes successful; he still needs education for them to make sound judgements in life. A sport without education is not healthy at all. One may earn so much through sports but fails to manage their finances due to lack of education. Education enables one to know what is important for them at a certain time. For example, young people if they do not acquire the right guidance through education, they may fail to invest and end up spending their income lavishly. Insisting of education for them was important as different individuals have different skills in life. One may think he will do well in sports hence neglecting education, but latter come to realise that sports are not for them when is too late. As a student, education should be the priority. Sports are mainly known as the extra curriculum activities. Class work is hence given the priority. Coach Cater having closed the gym due to the poor performance of the students who participated in basketball, parents become some furious as one claimed that the sporting activity had become the motivation for his son at school hence improving well in education. This made Cater concede to the wishes of the parents and school as well to reopen the gym. This was important as sports help students to open up their mind and perform better in class. However, the terms of the contract were to remain so as to cultivate respect and discipline from the students. The coach had even at the beginning received a blow from one of the students due to indiscipline. The student had to fall out of the practice together with a few who ended joining the gang in the community. Those who followed instructions from the coach were said to improve in class and in the long run started appreciating the terms of the contract. Another reason as to why the coach had to reopen the gym was due to his initial objective that was changing the Richmond community through discipline. In my thoughts, both education and sports should be taken seriously. They are as important as each other. A student who participates in sports has a higher chance of performing better in class than those who do not. Sports help in opening up their mind as well as breaking the monotony of education. It thus serves as a motivating factor as to why students attend schools. Again, sports should not take much of the time for a student as education is the major reason as to why parents take their children to school. Education without sports is dull, and hence whether a contract is made between students or not, sports should be part of student’s life at school. Parents should as well create time to be with their children and try to guide them on what is important and expected of them as students. Setting goals together will help the students work towards achieving them.

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