Grandparents make great sports fans for their grandchildren. At a recent high school baseball game, my dad got into a conversation with another player on the team’s grandfather and oh my, did they get to talking. Both had been college baseball players and now, here they were more than 50 years later, watching their grandsons play on a cloudy Saturday in Providence, Rhode Island. My dad was an outfielder at Boston College on a team that went to the college world series in 1965. His new pal had been a star pitcher at Providence College back when PC had a baseball team and then went on to play in the major leagues with the Washington Senators.
While the septuagenarian and octogenarian reminisced about the days of yore out on the diamond, they also hit on a crucially important topic that applies far beyond baseball: the shift away from the fundamentals of the game. Their conversation got me thinking that this modern tendency to undervalue the fundamentals is a problem that plagues us in many areas beyond sports. The first to come to mind was K-12 education.
Two defining characteristics of something being fundamental is that it is “basic” and “essential.” I suspect that if we polled every Rhode Islander, they’d agree that reading is fundamental, that teaching reading is a basic and essential responsibility of a school system. Students need to learn to decode, students need to build their vocabulary, students need to acquire background knowledge so that they can comprehend what they are reading. We are failing at this. Two thirds of students in the Ocean State are not proficient readers and despite massive efforts by literacy advocates and parents of children with dyslexia, teacher preparation programs continue to graduate teachers without the proper training in how to effectively teach children to read.
Students are not learning grammar in public schools anymore. Most students today only hear the word “pronoun” in the context of gender identity and “preferred pronouns,” but often have no idea what purpose they serve in language more broadly. We hear more debates about whether students see their racial, sexual and gender identities reflected in their assigned texts than about whether or not those same students can actually read those texts. An exasperated middle school teacher told me about how much basic knowledge his students lack and how little we are doing to address it. One example he shared was that a large proportion of his students did not know which ocean they were swimming in at the Rhode Island beaches. This is how far we have drifted.
Geography, grammar, arithmetic, civics — knowledge we once took for granted is disappearing and instead we are building our educational house on the weak foundation of electronic devices and passing fads.
We used to teach kindness and the golden rule, to treat others the way we’d like to be treated. Now, high priced consultants who specialize in diversity, equity and inclusion are considered a necessary expenditure, an essential part of delivering a robust education. And so are contracts with outside vendors who administer highly intrusive surveys about gender fluidity, suicide and race that suck up time and budgets and are rarely, if ever, shown to have made a positive difference.
We have taken our eye so far off the ball. We would be wise to listen to those old-timers at the high school baseball game and get back to basics. It’s high time to focus on the fundamentals of the game, whatever game that may be.
Sanzi is the director of outreach at Parents Defending Education and a former educator and school committee member. She writes at Sanzi.substack.com
When I read - "One example he shared was that a large proportion of his students did not know which ocean they were swimming in at the Rhode Island beaches. This is how far we have drifted" - I wonder "Ok, but where are the parents in this equation?" Do you expect teachers to do everything for you?
Erica Sanzi represents a new movement of parents. Never ending complainers about everything on a personal virtue-signaling campaign of "But it's for the children". Really she is simply a controlling Helicopter parent...the kids are older and need her less, and as an aging Matriarch she's trying to find new ways to hold onto her perception of power.
Every column she writes is an ever-expanding list of criticism towards other's not doing what she wants the wants she wants it, with zero suggestions of her own to resolve anything. Sprinkle in some culture war dog whistles and end on "Certainly We Can Do Better". How quaint.
Well then do better.. Put your money and time where your mouth is and homeschool your kids, or pay for a private school with a curriculum that matches your dark-ages ideals. Run for a school council or admin seat....Oh wait she already held such a position but gave it up. I'll take a wild guess...She was absolutely incapable of compromise, and constantly displayed an inability to work well with others?
Is Ms Sanzi talking about schools in the Blackstone Valley, or in other areas of the US? This is a local paper and it's not too much to expect commentary about local topics -- not the hot-button issues of the day in national right-wing circles. The Breeze is doing a disservice to its readers by wasting space on this.
Classic culture war junk. What would be very helpful if current teachers could leave comments verifying whether this nonsense is accurate or not. Be specific...not political...is this author correct? Teachers...you can change the dynamics of this issue. Please respond!
Nsbob, you write that this is "classic culture war junk," so it's clear you have an opinion regarding the veracity of the author's piece. You then ask others for specifics regarding the legitmacy of the article, but what specifics do you offer when you assert the article is "culture war junk?"
I can. Pretty much everything she wrote after "Their conversation got me thinking that this modern tendency to undervalue the fundamentals is a problem that plagues us in many areas beyond sports" since it all has absolutely nothing to do with headline?
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When I read - "One example he shared was that a large proportion of his students did not know which ocean they were swimming in at the Rhode Island beaches. This is how far we have drifted" - I wonder "Ok, but where are the parents in this equation?" Do you expect teachers to do everything for you?
Erica Sanzi represents a new movement of parents. Never ending complainers about everything on a personal virtue-signaling campaign of "But it's for the children". Really she is simply a controlling Helicopter parent...the kids are older and need her less, and as an aging Matriarch she's trying to find new ways to hold onto her perception of power.
Every column she writes is an ever-expanding list of criticism towards other's not doing what she wants the wants she wants it, with zero suggestions of her own to resolve anything. Sprinkle in some culture war dog whistles and end on "Certainly We Can Do Better". How quaint.
Well then do better.. Put your money and time where your mouth is and homeschool your kids, or pay for a private school with a curriculum that matches your dark-ages ideals. Run for a school council or admin seat....Oh wait she already held such a position but gave it up. I'll take a wild guess...She was absolutely incapable of compromise, and constantly displayed an inability to work well with others?
Know what makes Erica Sanzi happy?
Nothing [thumbdown][thumbdown][thumbdown]
Does complaining about complaining count as complaining?
I view my comment more as a quite fitting rebuttal no man apparently has ever offered throughout her life. .
Is Ms Sanzi talking about schools in the Blackstone Valley, or in other areas of the US? This is a local paper and it's not too much to expect commentary about local topics -- not the hot-button issues of the day in national right-wing circles. The Breeze is doing a disservice to its readers by wasting space on this.
Classic culture war junk. What would be very helpful if current teachers could leave comments verifying whether this nonsense is accurate or not. Be specific...not political...is this author correct? Teachers...you can change the dynamics of this issue. Please respond!
When you have to fill an 800-word space and have no actual ideas, “kids these days” is tried and true.
Nsbob, you write that this is "classic culture war junk," so it's clear you have an opinion regarding the veracity of the author's piece. You then ask others for specifics regarding the legitmacy of the article, but what specifics do you offer when you assert the article is "culture war junk?"
I can. Pretty much everything she wrote after "Their conversation got me thinking that this modern tendency to undervalue the fundamentals is a problem that plagues us in many areas beyond sports" since it all has absolutely nothing to do with headline?
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Comments that will be deleted include:
- Those that include threatening, derogatory, obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist, sexist or sexually-oriented language.
This includes any name-calling/nicknames of people both on the local and national level.
- Those with accusations or allegations that can’t be proven, or that try to build a negative narrative about one person or entity
over time through a clearly coordinated campaign. If you believe the backstory really needs to be shared,
send us a letter to the editor or a story pitch with your name and contact information.
- Those with outright lies or falsehoods.
Please use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know if you believe a comment was allowed in error.What we at The Breeze would truly like to see are comments that add history and context to a story or that use criticism constructively.