EDUCATIONALLY SPEAKING -- Gay Geiser-Sandoval

With every action, one must consider the risks and consequences. In

today’s environment, the attention that the media gives to certain risks

skews our views. For instance, many of us are now afraid to fly. However,

we are not afraid to drive in a car. It is estimated that 40% of drivers

on the road after midnight have consumed alcohol. About a quarter of

drivers in California do not have car insurance. The chances are much

higher that something will happen to you in a car than in an airplane.

But the car crashes that maim 250 people each and every day have become

an accepted risk. I would much rather have my children in an airplane

than on the road between midnight and 3 a.m.

Bioterrorism has become the buzzword used to fill up television air

time. Americans are purchasing gas masks to prepare for an anthrax

attack. However, gas masks don’t work unless they are worn. Who is going

to wear them all of the time? The kinds that are available to the public

are usually not effective against anthrax spores. Understanding this to

be the case, I believe there will be public pressure to supply schools

with enough gas masks for every student and teacher. That is money that

will go to gas masks instead of textbooks. Is that the best allocation of

educational resources?

Let’s face it. Going to school has risks. The biggest risk for most

students is the drive that gets them to school. The next greatest threat

is from communicable disease. However, we cut out the nurse who used to

be at every campus and replaced her with a police officer. More students

have died in our district from communicable disease caught at school than

from bullets received on a school campus.

The next biggest killer or injurer of kids on campus is contact

football. The deaths from football occur nationwide, as well as in our

own backyard this year. Then, in each week’s Monday morning recap, the

list of the football wounded is recounted. Some receive permanent

injuries that keep them from returning to the battle. Others are bandaged

up to do battle again as soon as their doctors will let them. In an

effort to be a team player, symptoms and pain are not necessarily

truthfully recounted to doctors and trainers.

My suggested solution isn’t a popular one. I’m sure many teams will be

instructed to burn this article and me in effigy. But what need is there

for contact football at the high school level that couldn’t be fulfilled

by flag football? Are our public high schools charged with the duty of

turning out future pro football players? If so, this district has not

done a very good job.

However, we are doing a very good job of putting kids into a situation

where they can get concussions. Many others break or damage bones,

muscles and organs. As a parent, ask yourself if you would let your child

take a math, chemistry or music class if the chances were statistically

high that your child would come home injured once or twice a month? Our

high schools don’t have boxing or rugby teams, but such activities are

available privately. Contact football could become a club sport.

Let’s consider a way to continue the football tradition without

putting our kids’ lives at risk. Let’s use our educational dollar for

teachers’ salaries instead of settling lawsuits.

. . .

Jane Ballback and the Corona del Mar PTA were busy over the summer

determining how to give parents a leg up on raising their teenagers.

They are inviting parents from throughout the district to join them

for a Distinguished Lecture Series. The first speaker will be

world-renowned child psychologist and educator David Elkind, author of

“The Hurried Child.” He will speak from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Nov. 1 at

Newport Harbor High School. You may buy his book “All Grown up With No

Place to Go” and have him sign it after his lecture.

Elkind, who has been on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” will discuss the

importance of understanding adolescent development and what parents can

do to guide, protect and lead their teenagers. He will also tell us the

one factor that affects “successful” schools more than any other factor.

Registration forms are available at your school’s office. Make your

reservations now to ensure that you have a seat.

* GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL is a Costa Mesa resident. Her column runs

Tuesdays. She may be reached by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .