Life Skills and Sports Talk Radio

One of the most peaceful moments I have to myself each day is right after I get back into the car after dropping my kids off at school and I turn on my radio to sports talk radio. There - my secret is out! Yes, not only do I listen to sports talk radio in the morning, but I really and truly enjoy it! The personalities that are on in the morning are funny, smart, and very entertaining. This morning, I found myself particularly engrossed in one of the topics. Colin Cowherd is on ESPN radio in the morning and I always tune in when I am in the car during his show. Today, he happened to be making the case for the importance of social skills and social adaptability. He went on to give examples of people who are brilliantly book smart, geniuses even, but have tragic stories because of their inability to interact and engage with the rest of the world.

Now, while I may not agree 100% with his examples and reasoning, much of what he said rang true to me and seemed especially timely in my world. Why? Well, report cards were just sent out at our school. Now, most of you might think that a perfectionist such as myself, no matter how much she is trying to change, expects to see only the highest marks across the board. Right? Well, sort of. The two areas where I expect (and to a certain extent, demand) to see high marks are "Academic Work Habits" and "Social Development." These categories encompass the life long skills our children will need to master in order to succeed and thrive in any endeavor, across any industry: "Accepts responsibility," "Works cooperatively with others," "Respects adults and peers," and "Exhibits best effort." It's not that I don't consider reading, spelling, math, etc. to be important. Quite the opposite, but the rules of punctuation or carrying the ones in addition are much easier to work on, practice, and even memorize, whereas I want my son to have an innate drive to always do his best, take responsibility for his actions, and treat others with kindness. I know, heavy stuff for a first grader, but as I mentioned in my previous post, our young ones are capable of so much more than we give them credit for!

I guess what I am trying to say in a wordy roundabout way (sorry, but it is midnight after all), is that I agree with Colin Cowherd and the importance of social skills and other intangibles that cannot be measured by a standardized test. Book smarts are not the only kind of smart. And the A+ in me will always demand perfection in Social Development and Work Habits. See...maybe you should give sports talk radio a chance!