Making Choices

Tom Winiecki
Mott Road Elementary School
Fayetteville, NY

Are athletes role models? You will hear people on both sides make compelling arguments.

People on one side will say that since athletes are in the public eye so much, they should be role models. Many people, young and old are drawn to them because of their abilities. The argument goes that they should take advantage of their status by sending positive messages to the public.

Others will argue the opposite. People like Charles Barkley will say that athletes should not be role models, parents should. They have the most direct contact with their own kids, so they should be the role model.

The way I see it, both arguments are right. Parents are, in fact the first person that their children look up to. As a father of two myself, I am always aware of what I say and do in front of them. I know that they are like sponges.

This does not absolve athletes. They, have the same responsibilities as a parent, or teacher to show those after them a positive example.

We as teachers want to use as many means as possible to reach our students. The print media offers us just such means. This is where I got the idea for our "Making Choices."

"Making Choices" is a collection of newspaper and magazine articles that my students or I find. They have nothing to do with who won, or lost a particular game. They have everything to do with how the athlete or coach acted on, or off the field.

"Making Choices" is found in two places in our school. First it is posted on a bulletin board outside the gym. The second place is on our web site (http://www.fm.cnyric.org/mott_road/pehome.html).

The "Making Choices" display is full of articles about positive things that happen in the world of sports. For each story, I try to explain it to my students in terms that they can understand. For example, one of the articles posted is about Jake Porter. He is a student at Northwestern High School in Ohio. He has a condition called "Fragile X" syndrome. This condition leaves Jake with some mental and physical limitations. While he is a member of his school's varsity football team, he is unable to have any contact, which may result is serious injury. He did have a "special play" that he ran in practice where he got a handoff and immediately would kneel down. During a game against Waverly H.S., Jake's team was going to get beat. Near the end of the game his coach called a timeout to let Jake run his special kneel down play. The Waverly coach saw what was going on and motioned to the Northwestern coach to let Jake score. His defense would get out of the way. While Jake's coach only wanted Jake to "take a knee," The Waverly coach insisted! As a result, Jake scored a touchdown and cheers and tears filled the stadium! The final score was not important and will soon be forgotten. The feelings from this event will never be lost! The choice that was made here was what was important, and a positive lesson can be learned by all.

"Making Choices" contains articles that shows poor behavior, both on and off the field. These stories are explained the same way. One example is about a local high school football team that had to dismiss some of their players right before the playoffs for vandalizing property. These players were starters and were sorely missed by their teammates. The choices that these players made cost both them and their teammates!

In my discussion with my students we talked about the fact that rules are for everyone, whether you are a "star" or not. No one should be allowed to break a rule, just because he/she may have more ability than someone else. I asked the kids what would happen if I made a rule for class, then promptly went into the gym and broke my own rule? Would you listen to me if I told you to sit out for breaking the same rule? They all say "of course not!" Now I know they understand. We've now taken something they have seen on television and brought it to their level of reality and understanding.

Another example was about members of a college football team that were stabbed while they were at a bar in a bad part of town. They were all hospitalized with their injuries. They also missed games because of the injuries. Their coaches told them not to go to this place, because it was in a bad part of town and bad things have happened there before. The players decided to go anyway. The players want to be considered adults. They now have to make "grown-up" decisions. They decided to go against their coaches' advice. They got hurt as a result.

We talked about this one in the context of the kids ever having had their parents tell them that they couldn't have something, or go somewhere? Again, everyone's hands went up. They may not have liked it at the time, but parents know best. I get the chance to reinforce the fact that they should pay attention to their parents. They have their best interests at heart.

Again, the kids have all been in these situations before. As long as I take the events from the articles and put it in a context that the kids can understand, I've got my message across.

We are not trying to create the next Michael Jordan. We are just trying to create healthy movers for a lifetime. The fact is, our students look up to these athletes. As a result, we should take advantage of this and use it to teach traits like fairness, compassion and teamwork. Through this, the kids see what they can learn from other people's actions. More importantly, through bringing the stories to their level of reality, they begin to see that they are also role models. Their friends are watching what they do in certain situations. They see the influence that their choices have on other kids!

If you have any questions about these activities, or anything else we do, visit our Mott Road Elementary School web site at or contact me directly at twiniecki@fm.cnyric.org