Many years ago when I was at high school, I had a particular difficulty with my teachers. That was as a result of my teachers wanting me to take part in athletics even though it was distinctly evident I did not possess any meaningful talent to pursue a career in athletics. I also argued that the community I was part of was too destitute to effectively support that type of vocation.
The view I held, which I still hold today, was that it was understandable, even necessary, to make young children spend time trying their hands at various activities as a way of helping them to discover themselves and their rightful places among their peers. But to force a 16-year-old bloke to participate in an activity just so that a contest can have a loser was never acceptable to me. So I had my fights with my teachers. At times they got me to satisfy their requirements. But more often I got them to leave me alone.
Today, I find I have a serious concern with the way our youth approach sport. Actually I have been saying to my acquaintances for many years that if the youth in our society could take half of the commitment they demonstrate towards sport and give it to reading in order to acquire life skills and improve the quality of their lives, we could accomplish in a few decades what other nations took centuries to achieve.
I duly take cognisance of the fact that sport is today a billion-dollar industry. But I also acknowledge that it is not a billion-dollar industry to everybody. To a great majority of us, it remains what its name says it is, sport. And sport is not something you move mountains everyday of your life to participate in. Sport is mostly something we engage in during our spare time in order to refresh and prepare ourselves for the next shot at the core issues of our lives.
There seems to be a notion pervasive among our youth that so long as they do not indulge in alcohol or drugs, all is fine. This notion is a complete fallacy. There are a thousand and one things in the world apart from drugs and alcohol that young people have to demonstrate capacity to deal with if they are to succeed in taking our ravaged society forward. Or if they are to succeed in representing the interests of our beloved country against their counterparts in the global marketplace. Amongst those will certainly be the need to make conscious decisions regarding what their careers are and what their sports are. They cannot afford to treat their careers the same way they treat their sports. I think it is reasonable to expect that careers will take precedence over sports.
Our society is chockfull of cashiers who have not mastered the operation of their tills. This despite the fact that they have been using their machines for years. Yet they find time every day of their lives to take part in sport. And when you ask them what they see themselves doing five years down the line, they say with a flourish: “Chief Executive Officer.”
Our society is chockfull of police officials who cannot take a decent statement or affidavit from a suspect or a crime victim. This despite the fact that they have been doing their jobs for years. Yet they find time every day of their lives to take part in sport. And when you ask them what they see themselves doing five years down the line, they answer without a sense of shame: “National Police Commissioner.”
Our society is chockfull too of teachers who cannot teach anything to learners without reading it from a book. This despite the fact that they have been doing their jobs for years. Yet they find time every day of their lives to take part in sport. And when you ask them what they see themselves doing five years down the line, they say with a glee in their eyes: “Minister of Education.”
Years ago young people used to surface at a professional soccer club at the age of 23 or 24 and go on to become stars in the biggest and most popular sport in the world. Today the entry age for professional soccer has gone down to some 17 or 18. The point I am making here is that it is perfectly understandable for youngsters of those ages and younger to make sacrifices and spend an important part of their time learning how to play soccer, providing, of course, that they have the right level of potential. It might well become a career that helps them put bread on the table for them and their families. But we must teach our youngsters to understand that soccer, despite all its power and glory, is not the panacea many of them take it to be. Like any other human endeavour it has its flaws and we have enough evidence of those in our society.
To have a 30-year-old cashier, police official or teacher participate in sport everyday of their lives while they do not make the time to close the gaps between what their certificates say they know and what they actually know and can practice is something that totally escapes my understanding. Surely people must accept that that life changes and that we are required to adjust our lives appropriately. I have always found that I have more empathy for illiterate people who find it difficult to discover things for themselves than for people who have the privilege of being able to read and write but let the skills die through disuse.
I hold the ability to read and write as being among the greatest gifts in human life terms. We must encourage people to use the supreme gifts to narrow the needless distance between knowledge and education. This will give education not only a friendlier face, but it will also bring education closer to a vast majority of people.
In the greater scheme of things, of course, it will help us to make our humble contributions towards the realization of the eternal dream of a better life for all. Let me close by borrowing an inspirational slogan from Fidel Castro’s Cuba:” If you do not know you must learn and if you know you must teach”.
Gibson Sakong
Executive Chairman – Montshepetja Academy
3 Comments until now.
I CAN ONLY SUPPORT YOUR STATEMENT Mr. SAKONG NOT BECAUSE I am bound to, but because it’s true. In my community one of the dominant sportiong codes is rugby. Everyone in Vaal Reefs wants to play rugby, just because the coach promises to get them work in the mines.
With this I amnot trying to exploit and demean anyone. My point is that sometimes people who are in charge of sporting activities tend to take advantage of the situation of those they deem surbodinate (in my community there is a lot of por, yet talented individuals).
In my speech of last year, addressing stakeholders of the team known as Leopard who hosted Rgby Day at the oppenheimer stadium, I stated that as great organisations, focus should be shifted from giving sport 100% time and divide it equally among sport and education.
with the above I am trying to say that I agree with Mr. Sakong. Sport does offer a lucrative amount of money and recognition, but -as I said in one of the sections in the site- people who have money don’t know how much they have and how to use it. Look at the great legends who die with nothing in their homes and in the bank.
We should avoid pushing the youth to being what WE think they CAN be. Let us try to cast them in the right direction, and pave their ways thay have taken as murale activities.
As stated in the last comment of this section, sport and careers (education) go hand in hand. There’s sporting codes that demand a lot of cognitive consciousness, moreover, wholehearted participation. Sport at other instances gives us an idea of what (career) we are best at.
An example woyld be chjess players, most of them are critical thinkers and free spirits (they think beyond arithmetics and logic. They at other instances become such, because of the training they get through playing chess.
My point with all of this is; if we know what we are good, what we are excelent at and what we are incapable of, we can easily work our way through careers that suit us best. We should now be consciously aware in whatever we do.
I must say that the issue of sport remains a “turmoil” to most of the youth, and the best way to come up with solutions is to engage in debates and arguements that are provided by institutions like MONTSHEPETJA and others.
Sport has been referred to as a stimulant to brain functioning. A mistake has been made when linking the two crucial factirs of educfation and sport. With repsect to my findings, I hope I hav a solution to that misconception.
When one is academically engaged, there is a lot of brain activity taking place and that is the reason why one turns to murale activities, such as sport, as a measure to relax the brain. The order is thus, education and then sport, but it is to us vis a vis, sporty and then education.
Research has shown that education should come gfirst and sport after as it is advantageous for proper retention and retaining of what was learned earlier. It is to me in this manner, from a youth’s perspective, we turn to sport first because it offers more “fun” than academics, giving us more reason to make it our first priority and turning to sport in the last run of the match.
We have athletes that have never been able to pas even the first grade of high school, because of the tantamount time they have put in to sporting activities, and the less time in education. With sport a possibilty of getting a career and keeping is limited and with education one limits for oneself.
With this comment I intend to impart the fact that sport can nver come before education though education can and should come before sport.
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