ýk7 SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION SERIES EDITED BY GEORGE D. STRAYER AND N. L. ENGELHARDT TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY THrI 1E STRAYER-ENGELHARDT SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION SERIES STATE SUPPORT FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS PAUL R. MORT SCHOOL EQUIPMENT COSTS-A METHOD OF ESTIMATING ARTHUR K. LOOMIS ACCOUNTING PROCEDURE FOR SCHOOL SYSTEMS FRED ENGELHSARDT FRED VON BORGERSRODE TESTS AND MEASUREMENT PROGRAMS IN THE REDIRECTION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION FREDERICK RAND ROGERS THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS FREDERICK RAND ROGERS SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION SERIES THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS BY FREDERICK RAND ROGERS DIRECTOR OF HEALTH EDUCATION NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT I hold that that man is in the right who is most closely in league with the future. -HENRIK IBSEN BUREAU OF PUBLICATIONS Ieatber. College, Columbia ~nibersitp NEW YORK CITY 1929 Copyright, 1929 by TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY To R. R.T. EDITORS' INTRODUCTION A gymnasium with a seating capacity of 3,000 was recently built in a city having 25,000 inhabitants. The board of education had been advised with respect to the need for classroom and laboratory accommodations in their high school, which was overcrowded. It was true that there was need for a gymnasium, but it was only because of the desire for a state championship in basketball that money was wasted in building an arena to accommodate spectators rather than a gymnasium in which boys and girls might play. Throughout the United States to-day, in connection with junior and senior high schools, colleges and universities, athletic contests have come to occupy the time and attention of the pupils in the schools and of the community in general in a manner most unwholesome for the contestants and for the spectators as well. It is not uncommon to find a superintendent of schools, a high school principal, or a teacher in difficulty because of the failure of an athletic team to win its contests. Boys are exploited by their fellow students, by the faculty of their school, and by the community in general. There has been widespread criticism and a desire to reform the situation on the part of thoughtful men and women, both in the teaching profession and among laymen. No more significant discussion has been provided than that which is given in this book. Doctor Rogers speaks with authority. He has had experience in the handling of high school children and he now has the very great responsibility of directing the work of physical and health education in the state of New York. Members of our profession will find in this volume a practical as well as a philosophic discussion of the issues with which they have been struggling. The solutions which Doctor Rogers proposes are worthy of the most careful consideration by all who hope to use athletic activity in the education of boys and girls. GEORGE D. STRAYER N. L. ENGELHARDT Vii AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION Certain striking evidences of a new trend in interscholastic sports (especially the recent condemnation of intersectional basketball tournaments by the National Federation of State High School Athletic Associations, and the elimination of practically all state championships in California and INew York) have evoked so much discussion and confusion that a review of the entire interscholastic athletic program has become necessary. Vastly more is at stake, however, than simply the abandonment of a few tournaments. As the voyage of a handful of sailors in a crazy ship turned the attention of the whole world from eastward to westward, and as the cosmology of an obscure theorist revolutionized men's conceptions of the center and extent of the universe, so may the rejection of championships in scholastic athletics prov ide the most effective influence in redirecting the social attitudes of a civilization. Certainly. Columbus, and probably Copernicus, did not conceive the overwhelming consequences of their actions; and probably, too, those who have stemmed the tide of a growing but highly unsocial tradition in athletics were not aware of the implications of their actions. But if state and national championships in scholastic athletics are wrong educationally (and attempts to eliminate these events have been argued from educational rather than practical premises), then perhaps all athletic championships are wrong educationally. And since the prime objective of ch'ampionship events is the exaltation of victory (their chief effect is to raise the scores of contests, whether in championship events or elsewhere, to supreme importance, and y ield honor to the victors), then perhaps "victory" as the supreme goal of games and sports may be wrong, especially if "victory" means "proof of the athletic superiority of one personality over another in terms of the score."' On the other hand, it is a commonplace that western (American and European) culture is rapidly giving way to a business man's:civilization; that is, a civilization in which human elements are subordinated to profits, and profits not turned back into expansion ix X AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION of business are largely spent to acquire and force on society, by conspicuous waste and otherwise, the personal superiority of those who secure control of any economic surplus; and he is the victor who can dominate, and if necessary humiliate, his fellows. Thus, the educational philosophy dictating the rejection of athletic championships as good, or even permissible, educational procedures is diametrically opposed to that practical philosophy of business which endorses men's barbarous and unsocial impulses to humble each other psychically. The potential consequences to civilization of rejecting "winning" and the score as the main objects of games and sports depend on two factors, the degree to which athletics engage men's time and interests, and the degree to which men harmonize their professional and play habits and attitudes. But whoever has even the most sketchy knowledge of either psychology or history must realize that men can not and do not for long maintain opposite attitudes and behavior patterns in different phases of behavior as closely interwoven in time and type as are business and athletics; and the preoccupation of modern people in athletic activities and discussions is too apparent to require further proof than the evidence of our senses. Indeed, professional and play life have already become so intimately conjoined that business methods and attitudes permeate sport; sports attract men from their work during regular working hours; business itself is transacted on golf courses and in grandstands; and the daily press devotes more news space to sports than to any other topic of public interest. Eventually, then, either business ideals may dominate leisure time activities, or sports ideals may dominate professional life. That is, either selfishness and psychic conflict will become of the essence of sport, or fair play, mutual good will, and cooperation will rule in business. To those closest in touch with recent developments it is apparent that a crisis is imminent which educators cannot ignore without abandoning their own highest aims. If education is to become more rather than less effective in humanizing and socializing the individual, and more rather than less powerful in controlling the future of civilization, educators must actively concern themselves with the immediate future of athletics. Especially must they make up their minds as to the proper organization and conduct of interscholastic athletics. "Are championships desirable?" "Is victory as measured by the score a proper supreme goal?" "If not, what can AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION xi the school do about it?" "Are athletic associations necessary, and if so what are their proper functions?" "What general rules for the conduct of these and other extra-curricular activities ought to be followed?" These are questions which must be answered by school administrators if they are to avoid impotence-in athletics first, in education next, and finally in all extra-curricular life of both school children and adults. "The first objects of this volume are to inform educators concerning the new movement to abolish championships in athletics, and provide a sufficient background to enable superintendents and high school principals to modify local school practices and policies in conformity with sound educational principles. The implied scope of the text is broader than that of interscholastic athletics, however. Most of the rules suggested apply equally to all extra-curricular activities, and therefore the concluding chapters suggest guiding principles for teachers in contact with this phase of child life. Finally, most of the events and policies outlined have parallels in the professional and social lives of adults. Those who most broadly expand their applications of the principles discussed or hinted at in the pages which follow may discover significant clues to the redirection of other phases of education and life besides games and sports. In this volume the author has not hesitated to repeat statements made in other publications, and even in this adventure. He hopes, however, that each repetition sheds some new light on the subject treated, or at least serves to emphasize the point made; and finally, that the detailed and somewhat strained analysis of what must appear to many as an obvious proposition will aid educators to substitute, in place of athletic championships which yield selfish glory to the few, and which lead all athletes tacitly to desire the humiliation of their friends in play, other procedures which will yield to all pupils charitable vitality, unselfish joy, informed sympathy, intelligent fair play, and mutual good willlife, more abundantly. F. R. R. August, 1929 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Fortunately the antidote, to Rousseau's characterization of the universe which begins "Tout est bien, sortant des mains de l'auteur des choses..." is not far to seek. Indeed, it is very close at hand for whoever sets his thoughts down on paper; for this procedure results inevitably in the realization on the part of the writer that he is responsible for but a very few of his own precious inventions. Especially those. which he prizes most! In this connection I doubt whether anyone has 'improved on the infinite charm and candor of "The First Book" of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus's Meditations. Even the most thoughtless perusal of the great emperor's reflections must compel the reader to appreciate the overshadowing effect of one's environment in shaping one's destiny, and, consequently, to lose all one's conceit with the realization that whatever of good one accomplishes in this world is chiefly because of the influence of one's parents, teachers and friends. Thus, I owe much of whatever may be good in this volume to lessons taught by "R.R.T.," to whom this adventure is dedicated. Two groups of men provided most of the practical lessons leading to the principles outlined in Part II. The first of these includes the administrators and physical educator-coaches of some eight schools comprising the Coast Counties Athletic League in California. The second group includes the members of the Central Committee of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association, from whom, as president of the Association during the years 1926 -29, I received the highest type of coo~peration and support. It was powerful and friendly, but always frankly critical. The manifold experiences provided by these twoý sets of men furnished the foundation out of which have grown most of the convictions and concepts outlined hereinafter. They have culminated in a vision of all extracurricular activities (and especially of interscholastic athletic associations) being placed once more in the hands of the pupils from whom they have increasingly been taken by adults. Many others have suggested themes developed in this volume Xliii xiv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Professors Clark W. Hetherington and Jesse Feiring Williams have taught educators generally that scholastic athletics make important contributions to social character, and may profoundly affect the nation's culture. At least they performed this service for me. To Professor George D. Strayer I am indebted for the suggestion that League-imposed scholarship rules are, perhaps, improper hindrances to pupil participation in interscholastic athletics. To the managers of an otherwise unimportant school track and field meet in Johnson City I am beholden for the unexpected revelation that "records" may safely, and with pleasure and benefit to all, be totally ignored in the conduct of these affairs. My grateful thanks are due to two men whose influence on the pages of this book may very easily be traced. Superintendent A. J. Stoddard of Providence, Rhode Island, was especially helpful in aiding me to avoid serious "air-pockets" in Part I, and Mr. John R. Tunis, tennis critic for the New York Evening Post, first suggested to me the theme developed in Chapter I. Other contributions were made and may be recognized by many other teachers, team mates, students, and friends. To name these would be indiscreet, for some might not recognize their contributions, or approve the conclusions I have drawn from their teaching or example. Nevertheless, I am profoundly grateful to all of them for the future they have assisted me to glimpse, describe, and hope for. CONTENTS PART I THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS CHAP. PAGE I. AN OVERVIEW...................................................... 1 Unorganized Play......................................... 2 Outsider-Control........................................... 3 Organization.............................................. 3 Championships............................................ 4 A Changing Trend......................................... 6 II. CONDITrIONING FACTORS IN INTERSCHOLAST-IC ATHLETICS.............. 8 Example.................................................. 8 Public Interest an d Publicity............................... 10 Money.................................................. 14 Foreign Trends........................................... 19 Education............................................... 10 III. AN EXAMINATION OF THE; CASE, FOR CHAMPIONSHIPS............... 22 The Problem............................................. 22 Defensible Values of Championships........................ 23 Often-Quoted but Dubious Values.......................... 25 The Chief Stronghold of Championships..................... 27 Other So-Called Values of Championships................... 29 IV. EDUCATIONAL CONSEQUENCES OF CHAMPIONSHIPS...................34 A Fundamental Principle.................................. 34 Consequences to Physical Health........................... 34 Consequences to Social Character.......................... 36 Consequences to Recreative Habits......................... 37 Effects on Physical Education Programs..................... 39 The Case Against Championships................................ 41 xv xvi CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE V. OPINIONS ON CHAMPIONSHIPS................................... 43 The Value of Opinion......................................... 43 Opinions of State and National Leaders...................... 45 Local School Administrators' Opinions........................ 49 Opinions of the Most Experienced Administrators...............50 VI. THE OUTLOOK.....................................................54 V1 Two Alternatives............................................. 54 Seven Growth Histories...................................... 55 Substitutes for Interscholastic Championships.................. 58 Consequences of "Semi-Professional" Athletics................ 60 Invitation Tournaments....................................... 62 An Attempt at Appraisal...................................... 64 The Opportunity for Educators............................... 66 PART II THE FUNCTIONS OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC ASSOCIATIONS VII. GENERAL FUNCTIONS OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC ASSOcIATIONS... 71 Are Interschool Sports Educational?.......................... The Nature and Purposes of Interscholastic Athletic Associations 1,"t VIII. PRIMARY FUNCTIONS OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLE.TIC ASSOCIATIONS... 77 Four Primary Functions...................................... (') What Activities Should Be Recognized?...................... 77 Who Should Play Whom?................................... 79 When Should Games Be Played?............................ 82 Where Should Games Be Played?............................. 83 Limits of Adult Control...................................... 84 IX. SECONDARY FUNCTIONS OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC ASSOCIATIONS.. 87 H ealth Protection............................................. 87 Endurance Tests as Health Hazards........................... 88 Accident Hazards as Health Hazards.......................... 90 Emotional Overstimulation as a Health Hazard................ 91 Provision of Facilities........................................ 92 Financial Assistance........................................... 93 CONTENTS xvii CHAP. PAGE X. IMPROPER FUNCTIONS OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC ASSOCIATIONs.. 95 General Principles............................................. 95 Eligibility Rules.............................................. 96 The Future of Eligibility Rules.............................. 100 &-- Glorifying Personal Superiority................................ 101 PART III EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES XI. THE NATURE AND VALUES OF EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES........ 109 Definitions................................................ The Meanings of "Direction and Control".................... 110 Four Types of School-Child Activity......................... 112 Three Major Values of Type B Extra-Curricular Activities.... 114 -Six Minor Values of Type B Extra-Curricular Activities........ 115i XII. SCHOOL OFFICERS AND EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES............. 118 School Officers' Functions-Proper............................ 118 School Officers' Functions-Improper.......................... 121 The Future of Extra-Curricular Activities.................... 125 Conclusion.................................................... 128 APPENDIX. A CONSTITUTION FOR AN INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION 131 PART I THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS CHAPTER I AN OVERVIEW Teachers, above all other agents of social progress, should be conversant with, and deal in, futures. But the future of interscholastic athletics is far from certain. The doctrine of victory ihber alles, which has held sway in American athletics for so many years, is being challenged everywhere. Championships, which have been growing "bigger and better," are being discarded as both physically and socially unwholesome. Proselyting seems to have passed its peak; to-day it is not only prohibited by rules, but is severely penalized when discovered.' On the other hand, the limit in size of stadiums is far from attained anywhere. Engineers can easily provide seats for 300,000 spectators within easy sight of a football field; and spectators are already available to fill arenas seating 150,000 persons eager to witness their favorite sports. The press welcomes these events, and reports them in ever-increasing detail; while an army of commercial interests stands ready to aid and abet any agency likely to increase its profits. Accordingly, there are clashing interests at work 2 which must be understood before any attempt can be made to foresee the future. In this chapter an overview is given from the standpoint of organization. And, since organizations for the promotion of athletics are human institutions they are dynamic and change constantly. Therefore, they are viewed historically as trends.3 1 The action of the "Big Ten Conference" in suspending a State University for the year 1930-31 for proselyting is an outstanding example. 2 Apparently the conflict is principally lbetween education and business in which educators happen to be pulling toward one goal, while financiers are pulling toward another. Fundamentally, however, the conflict is a phase of the universal struggle between diversity and uniformity, craftsmanship and the machine, culture and nerveexcitement, abundant life and life-in-death. 3National trends in interscholastic athletics are made up of smaller units, and play themselves out in little on local stages. What has been true in typical states is true also in cities, and even in individual schools and colleges. Therefore, acquaintance with local history in athletics is tantamount to knowledge of nation-wide trend. 1 2 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS Unorganized Play As in the lives of individual persons, so in school and college athletics, play is at first relatively spontaneous, undisciplined, and devoid of ulterior objects; in a word, wholesome. Groups of students, finding themselves with leisure to play and habits of playing certain games, drift together casually, and play some form of ball game on the most convenient spot. Rules are simple and changes therein are made informally, by mutual agreement. Officials volunteer their services. Uniforms and equipment are of widely varying qualities and styles. Spectators are few, and amused rather than deeply interested; while newspaper publicity is practically nonexistent. Examples of athletics in this stage of evolution may be found on many back lots and city streets, and experienced observers will remark the absence of formalities, officials, and spectators; and the prevalence of eagerness, healthfulness, and general good feeling on the part of players. But soon these players tire of each other's company, for some develop into skillful performers and become attached to particular games, while others fail to improve, or find more congenial outlets for their energies, and lose interest in athletics. The superior players now seek their fun elsewhere, for no sincere athlete enjoys either easy victory or overwhelming defeat. Then someone discovers that a similar series of events has taken place in a neighboring school, and finally, representatives of the two teams arrange for contests. Thus interschool athletics for these two schools is born! In athletics the interests of players are so intense and their responses are so positive that traditions soon take form and acquire substance. Meetings between teams from neighboring schools become annual affairs; games are played with schools more and more remotely situated; spectators pay more attention to the contests; fences are erected and money is collected at the gate to defray equipment and travelling costs; and newspapers announce, under larger and larger headlines, the names of victors, the scores, and the outstanding performances. This is the era of relatively unorganized interscholastic athletics. Each team still has its own manager who handles its funds and arranges its schedules. Players still perform "for sport's sake"pleased when they win and disappointed when they lose, but enjoying their play at all times, nevertheless. Rules remain relatively AN OVERVIEW few in number and easily interpreted. Managers receive no salaries. Spectators continue to be more amused than excited. Newspaper accounts are still casual; prepared by relatively uninterested reporters; and brief. The period begins in historic darkness and ends with the birth of local or school self-consciousness and pride. O utsi der- Control Now comes the interlude of outsider- control. Motivated by the desire to glorify the local community or school, or by determination to protect wagers, adults step in "to help the boys with their game." Advice is given the manager on what paraphernalia to purchase. Captains are advised on "how to run the team." Coaches are employed "to whip the squad into shape." The local playing fields are enlarged and re-graded, and grandstands are built. During this interlude players are secured from any source. They need not be students in any sense of the word; they need never see the schoolhouse. Local teams are harangued by the press, and paid in jobs, or cash, or glory for their efforts. Control of affairs shifts from players (who now are as truly mercenaries as ever were the Hessians of 177-6) to alumni groups or pool-hall gangs. Schedules are carefully laid out and admission to games is. collected by cashiers under police protection. Crucial contests between rival schools, or schools in rival communities, are followed by near-riots. Local pride is yoked with hatred of opponents and opportunities for insulting the enemy are plentiful and welcome. The United States has provided tens of thousands of civic and scholastic farces conforming to the pattern thus laid- down. It is typical of Main Street in a certain stage of development-say 57,000 to 50,000 population, between the years 1900 and 1920. Organization The outgrowth of this athletic debauch can only dismay all who observe it, and so town or alumni control of athletics passes after a few years, if the local school authorities are strong and imaginative enough to cope with the situation. College alumni are gently restricted by boards of athletic control, conferences, and associations, while local sporting men are effectively checkmated by interscholastic athletic leagues. This is the age of organization. Teams are now controlled by student body officers who take the tickets, arrange playing sched 4 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS ules, and pay the athletes with sweaters and Block X's. The activities of players on the practice field are planned and supervised by adult coaches employed by schools, student bodies, and local "fans." The coach also plans-as scientifically as possible-the contest activities of players, who become highly disciplined companies of shock troops, goingi"vr the top. at the- zero. hour, attended by physicians and cheered:in'by the multitude. Leagues are formed, and team schedules are merged into league schedules. League and association officers j eet' in grave conclaves to. draw up. detailed playing regulations and eligibility rules; and ostentatiously: reward victors with banners, plaques, and loving cups. It should be noted that schoolmen are now in apparent control. They organize and officer the leagues. They. formulate and administer eligibility rules, arrange playing schedules, and control coaches.: They direct student body affairs, and protect their own manifold prerogatives with jealous- eyes and pens. They have experienced the horrors of the. laissez faire policy in athletics, with its inevitable and disastrous denouement in alumni or town control. There are many schools and colleges to-day which exhibit all the stigmata of athletic over-organization. Top-heavy leagues full of formal rules and cramping traditions are found wherever outsider-control has forced school administrators to take things into their own hands, and wherever experienced principals have attempted to forestall the interfering instincts of irresponsible adults -in other words, everywhere. Championships Organization brings concentration on dominant features. In athletics love of glamour and public notice have guided organizers, who concentrate on victory and its exploitation. Now begins the crowning phase of athletic organization-the hysteria of championships. Organizations become more complex, and embrace larger and larger areas, in order that the title of "champions" may confer more glory. To give championship titles more validity, persuasive, even coercive, methods are utilized to force every school to join the organization; 4 and school teams are required to play distasteful games (with opponents they do not like) on pain of forfeiting 4Typical of such methods is the rule (in force in some state high school athletic associations) that no schools which are members of the association may play with nonmembers. AN OVERVIEW 5 the game and the right to participate in championship tournaments. In the wake of these developments practice for contests is made a sacred duty, and often players are literally forced to perform "for Alma Mater." Modest bleachers become stadiums. Playing fields are hemmed in by grandstands and automobile parking spaces. Admission charges skyrocket from fifty cents to five dollars. Newspaper editors assign special reporters to keep the public informed concerning the actions of performers in training. Proselyting becomes a fine art, and is reinforced by fraternity introductions, highsalaried jobs, athletic scholarships, and even outright donations to the more promising neophytes. Scouts spy on the enemies' camps. Boards of strategy work feverishly. The sciences are overhauled for contributions: electricity and medicine for conditioning and therapy, chemistry for diets, physics for applications of force to matter, mechanical engineering for training machines, and so on.5 Finally, advertising bureaus are organized and financial campaigns are undertaken to purchase stadiums, equipment, coaches, players, victories, championships! The United States to-day is littered with thousands of interscholastic championships. Every high school league has its "champion" teams. State associations organize state high school championships. There are even national scholastic championships in basketball, track, and field events; and someone organizes a new championship event annually.6 Among the universities there are the "East-West" football contests, the great (and beautiful) Poughkeepsie regattas, and championships in track and field athletics organized by the Pacific Coast Conference, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association of America and divers others. How far this hysteria of championships is from its origin in the natural, wholly admirable, and dynamic desire of the best players in one school to cross friendly swords with the best in near-by schools! Public interest has grown from zero to include almost every literate person and, with radio broadcasting, many who do not read. National attendance figures now reach millions on foot5 Athletic associations have hardly begun to use the sciences as they will in future years, if championships are retained. 6 During 1928-29 attempts were made to organize a national volley ball championship tournament for high school boys. In 1927-28 it was a "world's basketball foul goal throwing championship contest." 6 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS ball Saturdays. The press, which once ignored the games of schoolboys, now devotes more space to sports than to any other single class of news. Games once arranged by the players themselves for "Cnext week" or "next month" are now scheduled years in advance by managers who never played the games they manage for performers not yet matriculated in the schools they will represent. Players once defrayed the costs of their own games. To-day, scholastic and collegiate athletes are provided with the most expensive equipment without charge; they are transported thousands of miles in the most expensive rolling stock; they are trained by men whose salaries for a few months' coaching each season are greater than most of the athletes are likely ever to receive in their own working lives; and are themselves rewarded by press notices throughout the land, if not by imrmediate payments of cash, by scholarships, or by lucrative employment. Most extraordinary and regrettable of all is the complete revolution of motives and reversal of attitudes among the players. Where once players really played for amusement, athletes now perform for profit or glory (a particularly harmful kind of profit); where once players heartily enjoyed practice for games, now' workers. prepare for exhibitions with dogged spirits and clenched teeth;7 where once opponents were friends,-in-play, they are now competitors-in-trade. To-day the game itself yields over- development and injuries for the sake of scores and history; it once yielded incidents for the sake of amusement and health. A Changing Trend Up to the present moment the whole trend of organization has been toward larger and larger units, emphasis on glory and spectacles, and therefore nerve-excitement for onlookers, rather than play for players. But this trend shows signs of changing. As if the burden were too great to be borne, the downward-thrusting curve of over- organization has flattened, and shows signs of returning to its base. Already three state high school athletic associations have abolished certain ones or all of their state championship events, and, as a natural result, two of these state associations are revising their own functions. Decentralization is the key-word offering itself for utilization by organizations closest in harmony 71 See "No 5on of Mine" by Charlie Paddock, Collier's, August 17, 1929. AN OVERVIEW 7 with the latest developments, and freedom of action for players is becoming its, manifestation in the games of schoolboys. The future of interscholastic athletics, depends on factors other than organization, however. Organization itself is but a device of players and teams interested in arranging contests at first, and of non-players interested in their own ambitions eventually. Organization is but a reflection, congealed from the precipitates of human impulses and activities. Moreover, the trend in organization has already reached its greatest depth. National championship tournaments for secondary school athletic teams have been tried and found wanting by educators. The true determining influences in interschool sports include other things besides educational theories, and these have as yet reached no limit of development. Any intelligent estimate of the resultant of those. factors which will decide the future must depend on careful weighing of their relative powers. CHAPTER II CONDITIONING FACTORS IN INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS Example No historical phenomenon is more apparent than the westward movement of human culture. Whether the area surveyed begins at the Himalayas and ends on the Pacific coast of North America, or begins and ends with the eastern and western borders of any American state; and whether the phenomenon be religion, politics, art, science, manufacturing, or commerce, the rule holds: experience, knowledge, development, civilization, sophistication, and revaluation sweep in waves from the East toward the West. Minor exceptions are unimportant, or their analysis serves to prove the rule. California, for example, apparently leads America in certain phases of civilization (junior colleges, junior high schools, the motion and talking pictures) but Californians are often transplanted easterners, who have taken with them as adults the latest culture of their childhood homes. So it is also in games and sports, and especially in interscholastic athletics. Traditions established in Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are soon adopted in Cornell, Pennsylvania, and Syracuse, whence they move to the great state universities of the Middle West and the Far West. This holds true for types of sports, coaching methods, alumni control, stadiums, awards, cheering section tactics, songs and yells. Although imitation it certainly seems to be (for men are highly responsive to suggestion from socially older sources), there may be no causal relationship existing. Nevertheless, the fact exists. Interschool sports traditions move westward at a rate of about one state every three years, although the movement is gathering momentum as competition becomes keener and 1 No determined attempt, beyond the observation that western schools draw their faculties and coaching staffs from eastern schools, is made here to establish any relationship. 8 CONDITIONING FACTORS 9 communications grow more rapid. Thus, a tradition established at Harvard in 1905 would reach Illinois by 1915, while a Harvard innovation of 1940 may be expected to flower in Illinois about 1945. The construction of stadiums provides one objective example of this western movement of collegiate athletic traditions. The Harvard Stadium was built in 1903, the Yale Bowl in 1914, the Princeton Palmer Stadium in 1914; the Ohio State University Stadium was completed in 1924 and the Illinois University Stadium in 1924.2 Percy D. Haughton at Harvard (1908 to 1915) was a pioneer in efficiency methods of coaching football. His methods, or others based on his example, were introduced at Stanford University in 1921, and are only now becoming fully effective in Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois. Proselyting has almost died out in New England, but it is still rampant in the Middle West and Far West. Fireworks and bleacher stunts are passe at Harvard; but the Pacific Coast cheering sections still provide vaudeville exhibitions at their big games. If Harvard alumni are still concerned over the fate of their college athletic teams, the undergraduates of Harvard enjoy totally different points of view; 3 but in the Middle West and Far West the alumni still retain the whip hand. It may be said that interscholastic athletic traditions are moving horizontally and westward, vertically and downward. The second movement proceeds from colleges to secondary schools, and even from secondary to primary schools. In this case there is no question about the causal relationship. High schools literally "ape" the colleges, especially in smaller communities, and attempts to "be collegiate," as the slang phrase has it, extend to all extra-curricular affairs. Clothing, speech, fraternities, dances, and debating provide amusing examples of imitation, but in athletics the situation is painfully ludicrous-like the small boy smoking his father's cigar. High school football teams are equipped, coached, and directed on the field of play after the manner of college teams. A new sport is no sooner introduced into the leading colleges than it is taken up in near-by high schools. Systems of award are almost identical; organized cheers are identical. Nor does it require many years for high schools to reform their traditions according to the new mode. One, two, or three years at the most will suffice. 2-The Stanford University Stadium was first used in 1920; the University of California Stadium, in 1923. 3 See series of articles by J. R. Tunis in the New York Evening Post, May 6-13, 1929. 10 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS Thus, the trend of developments in both college and secondary school athletics throughout the United States follows the example of leading eastern colleges, and the immediate future for all but the leaders may be predicted with a fair degree of safety in terms of what the New England schools are now doing. Harvard and Yale, however, as well as the smaller New England colleges, are definitely moving away from highly organized and brutally efficient drives for victory toward wide participation, even in interschool contests, with "fair play," "recreation," "amusement," and "friendship" as objectives for directing faculty heads as well as student players. It is fairly certain that the example of these eastern schools will act as a, solvent to disintegrate those forces which are driving interschool athletics, toward complex organization, championships, hysteria, and high finance. Public Interest and Publicity Opposed to the deflation of general interest in highly organized and intensely competitive interscholastic sports is a force of no mean dimensions: the public and its, ally and abetter, the newspaper. The trend here is definite and unmistakable in its downward sweep, although already showing some, abatement in its rate of increase. Two criteria of public interest are easily available: attendance records at interschool contests, and space in newspapers devoted to interscholastic athletics events. The curve of attendance begins at about zero in 18604 but rises rapidly. In 1887, eighteen thousand persons attended the Yale-Harvard football game. This figure is far from typical, however, for on Friday, November 16, 1888 the New York Times reported: Harvard beat the University of Pennsylvania at football today after a rough battle.... The miserable weather prevented a great crowd from being present but there were 300 enthusiasts on hand.... (In this year the Middle West and Far West had no great universities to provide either teams or spectators). In 1908, about 35,000 persons attended the Yale-Harvard football game, and about 18,000 the Stanford- California contest. In 1920 the Yale Bowl was filled to capacity, and in 1928 it was reported that 100,0OQ persons were "disappointed" by their failure to obtain seats. Had an arena seat4'Yale, Her Campus, Cflassrooms and Athletics, by Walter Camp and L. S. Welch. CONDITIONING FACTORS 1 11 ing 300,000 spectators been available doubtless it would have been filled. The second 150,000 would go to see the first 150,000 and each other, if for no other reason. In Chicago on November 27, 1926, Soldier Field was filled to capacity (110,000) for the Army-Navy football game; while on the Pacific coast, where the University of California stadium has a potential local clientele of less than two million inhabitants about San Francisco Bay (in contrast to the Yale Bowl which is within easy reach of fifteen million inhabitants) over 100,000 persons witnessed the 1924 Stanford- California football game.5 Similar records prevail in basketball, which drew its first collegiate crowds of any size after 1918. To-day basketball pavilions in most of the larger universities accommodate from five to fifteen thousand persons, while the newer high schools throughout the country, especially in the Middle West and in smaller communities, boast gymnasiums which are but glorified basketball pavilions; they often seat more persons than are included in the entire local population. Newspaper accounts begin by reflecting public interest. Thus, in 1888, on the week beginning Friday, November 16 the New, Yo'rk Times carried 151 inches of interschool athletic news. From November 13 to 19, 1908, this figure had risen to 469 inches. During the week beginning Friday, November 16, 1928, there were 2,433 inches. On the three Sundays of November 18, 1888, November 20, 1908, and November 18, 1928, the number of inches devoted to interschool sports were 33, 255, and 959, respectively. Chart I tells a fascinating and highly significant story. Interest in intercollegiate sports seems to have begun soon after the Civil War ended.6 Its rise as reflected in the press was slow; a slight decline occurred in 1898 when reality took the place of the mock warfare of football. Thereafter, however, a highly accelerated rate of increase appeared which was again cut short by another war. The upper limit was reached in 1926 when some 3,000 inches of the New York Times news space were devoted to interschool and intercollegiate sports on a typical week in November. In 1927 and 1928, however, a precipitate drop was indicated. 5 This number was possible because the California Stadium is set in the side of a hill. Some 25,000 persons saw the game from the hillsides above the stadium. 18It will be noted, too that the West had been opened up; the California gold rush was over. As a people we had penetrated our last frontiers. 12 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS NEWSPRINT de vo edft Interchool Lames and Sports The New York Times ka'd oa p a coagi z.- e772Ler/1616Y-61-,9 CHART I CONDITIONING FACTORS 1 13 That the sudden departure from an upward sweep, measured by the 1927 and 1928 figures, presages a change in public interest in scholastic sports affairs is indicated by other phenomena which will be discussed hereafter. Of greatest Significance to the press is the remarkable rise in space devoted to semi-professional ice hockey matches in New York City and elsewhere. Beginning with a few columns in 1924, the New York Times devoted so much space to this sport in 1927 and 1928 that interschool sports news has been crowded out. Further investigation shows, too, that more space is being devoted to horse racing and soccer football. Space devoted to sports in general1 is not decreasing, but space devoted to scholastic sports is. Doubtless reports on the latter will always be carried, but chiefly on days following contests rather than constantly, and will not deal with such absurd topics as "What Coach thinks of his chances next Saturday," and "Fury of Coach X's Tongue May Win for Princeton." That is, the professional sports writers will find an increasing public interest in sports -but in professional sports rather than schoolboys' contests. Thus, the limit of increase is in sight, but it will be accompanied by a vested interest of tremendous power.7 Unless sports writers adjust themselves and their public to new attitudes toward collegiate and scholastic sports, and greatly modify the character of their writings, these men will use their great powers to make war on any innovation which threatens their prestige or pecuniary safety, for an enlarged reading public will have become accustomed to reading and believing the words they write. Newspapers themselves will be adjusted to the accommodation of these men and their contributions, and editors and owners will depend on these thousands of inches of news to sell perhaps a fourth of each of their editions.8 The growth of general interest in interschool sports as indicated by attendance figures and newsprint has been a natural result of the press and the public working as a team. At first only friends of the players followed the teams, and newspaper accounts were meager. But as attendance at games increased the games became 7 Evidence of another kind is adduced in Chapter VI which indicates that after 1940 public preoccupation with interschool sports may shift to other fields (also athletic). Consequently, a second curve is shown on Chart I indicating that newsprint devoted to interschool sports will decrease in amount after 1940. 8 Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn, aided by Mr. Charles N. Nager of the Columbia School of Journalism, conducted, in 1928, an analysis of newspapers which revealed 14 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS news, and the press reported to all the items that were formerly news to a relatively restricted group. This free advertising encouraged the curious to swell the crowds of friends, thus giving the "news" greater importance, for any event Which lifts 100,000 persons out of their routine lives and brings them to one spot at the same time is, by any definition of the term, news. Thus, the present situation presents a significant picture: interest is literally created and made universal by the daily press and the radio, while increased leisure and the automobile have made it possible for indefinite numbers actually to attend the major intercollegiate athletic affairs. And once again the phenomenon works itself out in miniature in the lower schools. As New Haven and Palo Alto take Roman holidays every two years, so does Gopher Prairie bedeck itself for its own high school games. Local newspapers announce the victors and scores in front-page headlines of the same size as those used to announce a new president of the United States. The teams have their pictures on the sporting page; and private trains are chartered to transport townspeople to state championship contests. These conditions indicate that the future of interscholastic athletics is partly in the hands of the public and the newspapers, who are not at all likely to give up their interests and amusements voluntarily, unless some substitute can be found. If that substitute is more satisfying, eastern college leadership may triumph and interschool sports may become once more a matter of but little interest to the general public. Otherwise, enthusiasts interested in local scholastic athletics will attempt to block any move to deprive them of their entertainment. At present a vicious circle has been established, wherein newspapers help to create and maintain the interests they apparently serve. Money Within the past two decades several armies of men have become dependent on athletics for their livelihood. In 1888, or even in 1908 a complete revolution in the relative importance given to news matter in the past century and a half. In 1874 no news space was devoted to sports; but in 1928 nine per cent of all space was devoted to this topic. No other news topic exceeded sports; domestic news was second, with seven per cent and the portion given to literature, art, music, the stage, etc., was third with three and eight-tenths per cent. Where advertising matter was counted, however, fashions was, 'in 1928, first, with sixteen and six-tenths per cent of all space in the five New York newspapers with the largest circulations (the New York Times, Herald Tribune, American, World, and Daily News). This note is from an abstract prepared by Professor Horwell Hart of Bryn Mawr College. CONDITIONING FACTORS 15 these armies had only a few recruits, who were chiefly sporting goods salesmen and manufacturers. To-day, by contrast, there are 1,140 persons employed in the factory of one of these firms alone. This same firm employed only 450 persons in 1908, and none at all in 1875. Nor do these numbers include the much larger selling force. One corporation 9 which recorded net sales of a little over three million dollars in 1903 had increased its business to over twenty-six million dollars in 1928. Any movement threatening interscholastic sports might be interpreted as an indirect blow at everyone directly connected with the manufacture and sale of athletic supplies, and an invested capital of many millions of dollars will be involved, to say nothing of the thousands of workmen, managers, and salesmen who would be affected. On the other hand, it is more than possible that reduction of public concern for interschool sports, with a proportional increase in interest and participation in intramural sports will greatly increase rather than diminish the market for athletic supplies. This eventuality is greatly to be desired; it is the proper function of collegiate and scholastic coaches to bring it about; and sporting goods houses should, therefore, aid rather than hamper a program which promises them greater immediate returns as well as immensely increased later consumption of their wares-for the larger numbers who will be given sport activity habits through intramural athletics will become long-time customers during their post-school years. Chart II indicates the growth of public interest in sports in terms of athletic supplies actually purchased. It is interesting to note that the only slack in the upward sweep of this curve occurs coincidentally with the peak of public interest in intercollegiate sports as indicated by space devoted to them in the New York Times. Many causes may have contributed to the slump in purchase of athletic supplies but one of them must be that the public was content to watch rather than play. The upward trend of sporting goods sold begins again at about the same time that the Times began devoting more space to professional ice hockey. At the same time physical educators throughout the country have become really effective in shifting emphasis away from school teams and on to participation in intramural sports. The inference is clear but the "A. G. Spalding and Bros. 16 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS 111 _ _.,.. _ _ _-_ I 1 ' I 48 40 5portinf0Goods 56 Boujht & 5old 04 PromientlArm 1903 to 1926&. I,, - - - - /Z do to I&o0 /8IN 1890 A IM /900 1905 FISCalyear /9Y /930 /935 1940 /945 1950 1965 CHART II CONDITIONING FACTORS 17 views and policies endorsed by commercial houses concerning interschool sports may not follow this reasoning. Nevertheless, whatever they decide will, through their advertising and other agencies, materially affect the future of interschool sports. A second army of men more vitally interested in interscholastic athletics than manufacturers of sporting goods is composed of collegiate and scholastic sports coaches. Nor can the influence of these men be discounted as negligible, for the salaries paid for athletic coaching command the services of men who are resourceful, active, and tenacious. Only an estimate can be made of their numbers, since so many of them combine coaching with other duties, such as those of high school physical educators. Nevertheless, professional interest is shown in the magazines paid for and read; and a clue to their number may be secured from this source. The Athletic Journal (the chief publication devoted to athletic coaching subjects) is sold to over 10,000 regular subscribers, practically all of whom are coaches of secondary school and college athletic teams. Probably there are at least 15,000 coaches of interschool sports teams in the United States who would be profoundly affected by any great change in the status of interscholastic athletics. The influence of these men has, in general, been extremely conservative. Therefore, they may be expected to retard any positive development, and certainly will (until they become aware of the larger services which a new regime will offer them) attempt to block any move the ultimate effect of which might be to destroy public interest in their work. But there is some hope that even this group may surprise by endorsing a radical change. Reduction of public interest in scholastic sports will be balanced by greater interest in semi-professional sports, municipal golf and tennis tournaments, and private club athletics. Coaches who prefer to remain in the coaching field for a few more years (it is seldom that scholastic sports coaches continue this mode of occupation throughout life) will find opportunities to do so in connection with these other adult activities.'0 There are also coaches of coaches in the so-called coaching schools." These specialists include most of the conspicuously suc10 See 'Chapter VI, Charts III and IV, pages 56 and 65. 11 Probably there is no collegiate organization so devoid of social value and so pregnant with possibilities for developing unsocial habits and attitudes as the modemrn university "coaching school." Its character is suggested by the nature of its ostensible and real contributions to its students. Ostensibly it trains coaches to train athletic teams which 18 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS cessful collegiate coaches-men whose vested interest in interscholastic athletics is very great indeed.12 There are, too, the managers of interschool sports, "graduate managers" in universities, state association secretaries, district commissioners, and even national officers, who would be obliged to seek new fields of endeavor were control of interscholastic athletics decentralized, for example. Another group of men growing rapidly in numbers, power, and prestige are the sports writers. Many of these are regular reporters, covering professional sports and national amateur championship events during the summer, but concentrating on interschool sports in the fall, winter, and spring. Others are students, either in college or recently graduated, who are glad to find niches in newspaper offices, and who bring to their task, usually, only a superficial insight into the sports they report, and almost none at all into the social consequences of either the activities they describe or the phrases they compose for publication. Sports writers, especially in smaller communities, have responded to these new developments in interschool athletics (which promise to reduce the news value of the events they report) chiefly with derision, quite regardless of the social value of the innovations. Other financial ties bind those who control interscholastic athletics to programs of expansion, and appeals to public interest and support. Stadiums, representing investments of from $100,000 to $3,000,000 must be paid for. Public high school treasuries must be filled to provide money for the equipment and travel of school teams, while these teams must play and travel to earn money for the treasury existing largely for their benefit-another vicious circle. Even trophy manufacturers are not uninterested in interschool sports. They do a brisk business in medals, plaques, and loving cups. v Thus, money plays a major r61e in interscholastic athletics, representing the ulterior motives and selfish aims of tens of thousands may amuse the public. It performs this service, but actually it appeals and offers aid to the coach who desires above all a "winning team." Thus, it prepares coaches to defeat each other.... State monies were better spent on communications with Mars than on collegiate sports coaching schools of this type. There is a legitimate field, however, for the coaching school which prepares men to coach members of private clubs in golf, tennis, and similar sports, to teach sports as public park and municipal golf course and tennis court attendants, and to prepare in the field of games and sports, men for professional and semi-professional playing and coaching. 12By current standards these men earn and deserve their incomes of $10,000 to $50,000 a year. Their work is arduous, highly competitive and has an atrocious mortality. Average tenure, for example, is less than three years per coach per job. CONDITIONING FACTORS 19 of highly trained, strategically placed, well paid and unusually alert and competitive adults, to whom the trend indicated by recent developments at Harvard can threaten change of occupation as the very least of evils. Foreign Trends European sports customs have lost their potency for influencing those in the United States. As New York has become the financial capital of the world, so has the United States become the capital of western sports culture. Fifty years ago this was not true. America derived her games, her standards of conduct, and even her ideals of sportsmanship from England. To-day the situation is reversed: Europe is now following the American lead. America can no longer expect effectual leadership from Europe but must blaze the trail herself. Education A conditioning factor of unknown strength in athletics is education.'3 Nevertheless, the recent adoptions of newer educational objectives provide the greatest hope for the modification of interscholastic athletics along social and hygienic lines, for educational theory suggests practices which are quite at variance with present customs in interschool sports. Above all, the educator wishes to develop individuals to their maximum potentialities. In brief, he attempts to preserve and improve general health and physical fitness, to develop social habits, attitudes, and ideals, and to improve culture through knowledge sympathetically received, thoroughly understood, and crystallized into an infinite variety of appreciations. But the trend of interschool sports as affected by public interest, the press, and money 13 Pedagogical principles have ever been weak in turning the current of civilization, and it is still an open question whether educational theory can dominate even its own household when it runs counter to the power of public opinion and money. As reviewed in Chapter I, schoolmen have passed through stages of neglect, tolerance, assistance, and finally apparent domination of interschool sports, and accompanying this change in policy increasingly more wholesome and sportsmanlike traditions have developed. There remains only a question as to whether school administrators can further change traditions in accordance with a developing theory of education. In the past, college and university presidents have been singularly impotent in this field, but their apparent failures may have been due to lack of vital interest in what were relatively unimportant fields. To-day, however, interschool sports constitute a major school interest, a major news topic in the daily press, and lre rapidly attracting numerous remora in the shape of financial interests. 20 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS 4is in the opposite direction. The player is not developed along 4individual lines for his own good, but trained for circus performances and victory for the satisfaction of others. In the process health is protected as, an acrobat's or a soldier's health is protected -that he may sacrifice his body, his health, or even his life on exhibition days, while social character is improved only in the narrowest sense of the term. Coaches and other apologists for highly competitive athletics render lip service to "coo~peration," but in pursuit of championships the spirit of competition is supreme. This is inevitable wherever the objectives motivating players are "victory" and "the championship." It is small wonder, then, that athletes, and their mentors, the coaches, are distinguished chiefly by thei r pugnacious attitudes. Fair play prevails chiefly because it is enforced from above; sympathy and understanding, two of the three very cornerstones of civilized culture, are at heavy discount owing to their debilitating e 'ffects on the will to win.'4 In truth, championships, the supreme example of highly competitive athletics, are thought by some to be the ve.ry negation of democratic education. The necessary specialization to win supreme honors entails a waste of energy and time and a distortion of outlook which can only drain creative powers and warp- the judgments of athletes. Concentration on a few athletes handicaps the teacher in the discharge of his plain duty to others, and cultivates. false values in the minds of those trained. Innate powers are not permitted to bud and flower naturally, but are either forced to premature blossoming (for the sake of others' pleasures), or ruthlessly starved and killed, because they do not serve the god of victory in the particular skill being developed. "Respect for personality" becomes a taunt, and "consideration for others" a crime. "If championships are good for school children (an increasing number of serious thinkers are saying to-day) then democracy, social justice, human sympathy, Christianity, and training in these qualities are bad for school children." Education and championships (according to these educators) are the strangest and most incompatible of associates. Thus, education and money apparently are once more found to be opposed to each other in the struggle for social control, this time in the athletic arena. Education has the more subtle weapons, for 'A See Bertrand Russell's Education and the Good Life (Boni & Liveright), Chapter V. CONDITIONING FACTORS 21 its army of teachers may insinuate new ideals into childish brains which possess no standards of comparison to judge by, or vested interests to protect. But money deals the more powerful blows and 8/ is more sensitive to attacks upon its trenches. Money also takes on many disguises and lures the supporters of education from their points of vantage. Men who desert their own pecuniary strongholds and support education at the expense of their personal fortunes are few and far between. The reverse is not so true: educators are often deceived, or induced to fight on the side of money in its battle to increase its own territory and power, even at the expense of education. Nevertheless the Harvard example remains, a challenge to the forces which would sweep interschool sports into the camp of their enemies; while in three states already the great salient of selfinterest-state interscholastic championships-has yielded to attack. An examination of the character, importance, and future of this outpost of athletic development, together with a report of the most recent attacks thereon by educational forces, should reveal the inner story of the battle, and possibly indicate the future of all interscholastic athletics. CHAPTER III AN EXAMINATION OF THE CASE FOR CHAMPIONSHIPS The Problem Championships are the prime incentive toward organization of many athletic associations. They serve as an inspirational force for large numbers of players; they place a whip lash of great potency in the hands of coaches, many of whom are employed to win championships, or who receive additional salaries 'When their teams do win. School administrators often use the lotteries labeled "championship tournaments" to support them in maintaining the scholastic and amateur integrity of their representative teams. Local sporting enthusiasts, who otherwise might insist that 'unrepresentative players be used, are checked effectively by the knowledge that public disgrace and elimination from participation in championship tournaments are the results of using over-age, or out-oiftown, or poor-scholarship players. The elimination of championships, many sincere and competent high school principals believe, will seriously retard the growth of clean interschool sports by removing the chief hold which athletic associations have on individual schools. It frequently happens that the principal, superintendent, board of education, and business men of even the smallest towns are obsessed with a desire to "advertise the town" and seek to accomplish their object cheaply- and effectively by means of scholastic athletic teams, thus following the example of many successful colleges and universities. Since championships are legitimate news items, thousands of people who otherwise would never hear of Town X will read of its championship basketball team. Championship athletic events provide subjects of discussion for newspaper reporters who will regret the elimination of them on purely selfish grounds. And finally, the canny high school athlete often uses the publicity he receives from championship performances to attract to himself the attention which will 22 THE CASE FOR CHAMPIONSHIPS 23 bring athletic scholarships,' and other financial returns for his services at some university.2 Thus, championships have many supporters who will advance the most plausible arguments for their retention, leading relatively uninformed outsiders to conclude that such tournaments are the bulwark of clean and educationally wholesome athletics. On the other hand, educators far removed from local or selfish interests almost universally condemn honor-tournaments on any large scale; and even the most vehement supporters of league and state championships for high schools are strong in their opposition to national championships for the same pupils. Evidently there are points both for and against honor-tournaments; and even these seem to apply with different force under different circumstances. Defensible Values of Championships At the outset it must be observed that the problem concerns championship tournaments; that is, events whose chief apparent object is the determination of champions, or "best in the district." The desirability of tournaments is in no sense the point at issue, but rather the desirability of tournaments organized and conducted to discover and reward superior athletic performances. The effect of this restriction is to reduce materially the force of the most defensible values of championship tournaments, of which the broadening effects of travel is the chief. While championship contenders do travel, nevertheless school teams may and do visit new territories regardless of championships. Honor-tournaments, by requiring players to travel, make some contribution to pupils' general culture, but the point is pertinent in the case of all interschool sports events.3 1 Athletic scholarships are granted to student athletes in lieu of money payments for their services. Direct money payments are taboo, since they would "professionalize" the athlete. The athletic scholarship is an open subterfuge to defeat the purpose of amateur rules, but is within the law. 2 This statement will be substantiated by the results of investigations in almost any large city high school. 3 The value of travel consists chiefly in opportunities offered for enlargement of social contacts, rather than in simply sight-seeing. The press, radio, and moving pictures bring to even the most inaccessible homes pictorial and sound representations of the whole world. Newly visited cities and foreign countries look disappointingly like their pictures! But these agencies bring almost nothing of the fundamental human and social elements of life to the beholder. The chief values of travel, then, lie precisely here: travel should mean (to-day more than ever before in history) opportunities for contacts with and understanding of new personalities, societies and cultures. 24 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS Nevertheless there is some truth in the point. Many pupilplayers (and their supporters) will travel to championship events who would not or could not travel otherwise, either because financial aid would be withheld, because the objective would fail to stimulate, or because parents and teachers would effectively oppose rather than encourage the journey.4 This is the chief gain resulting from championship events. Players see new cities and meet new people-their horizons are definitely broadened. Of course such values may be claimed only when the travel is extensive, as when teams are sent from all states to national tournaments or from all sections of a state to the state tournament. It is here, however, that the value of "travel" as an argument for championships receives a serious blow, for national tournaments-those whose "broadening effects" are greatest-are not favored by the chief defenders of local and state championships. The point is further weakened by the actions of coaches and others who guide players when on the "cultural travel trips." Players are restricted in sight-seeing to save their strength, and are curtailed in all unusual experiences to guard them from emotional disturbances. Probably no travelers see and experience the outside world less than do scholastic athletic teams seeking championship honors. Improvement in skill and understanding of the game is an undoubted service which championship events perform for players. Teams which remain undefeated locally can learn through contacts with others more skilful than they. However, championship tournaments are wholly unnecessary for such experiences. There is hardly a secondary school team in America which cannot find, close at hand, a college or university freshman team which will give it a more thorough lesson than any championship tournament. Coaches may benefit from the latter, coming at the end of the season after the learning period is completed; players seldom derive any appreciable benefit. 4 These observations suggest weaknesses in the conduct of schools and homes which should be eliminated by other means than setting up athletic championship events as goals. Money for travel may be obtained by other means than attendance at honor tournaments; other and better reasons than "athletic events" for visiting new cities may be taught by teachers; and both school and home may encourage children to travel more than they now do. In a few words: Induce children to travel for better reasons than athletics-and help Ithem go. The average parent will declare that his children are quite footloose already. "Flivvers," "hitch-hiking" and "tourist-third" methods of transportation place the whole world within easy reach of the adventurous adolescent. THE CASE FOR CHAMPIONSHIPS 25 Another possible value of state championships is that they serve to deflate the overdeveloped egos of local champions, all but one of whom in sectional, state or national tournaments, must meet teams superior to themselves. While this end is often accomplished, the "value" is a boomerang, for it implies that some local championship tournament served to create or promote the undesirable inflation of self-esteem. These three points constitute the most defensible values of championships in athletics. Often-Quoted but Dubious Values Several other "values" of championships are often cited to defend their sanction and gain support for their continued existence. These will be explained briefly below, and their weaknesses will be disclosed. Increased interest and participation in all athletics are often cited as a value of championship events. Possibly many pupils are induced to try out for teams in the hope of future glory, or a trip to the state meet, and many others are induced to conform when they witness and read about contests lighted by the halo of potential glory for the victors. If no better method were available to stimulate young boys to play healthfully, championships might score heavily here.' The point is not sustained by experience, however, except in relatively unimportant cases. One measure of championships as salesmen for wholesome sports in school life is the situation in schools where this incentive to participation does not prevail. Very few private schools in the United States organize themselves into leagues for championship athletic encounters, yet private schools provide, as a rule, the best examples of wide participation in athletics. In England everybody plays some game, interschool sports are popular, and match games attract wide attention, but championships in the American sense are almost unknown. Social custom and school tradition are sufficient to induce practically every pupil in both English and American private schools to participate regularly in sports, and there are schools and colleges in the United States which permit almost no interschool competition and yet provide examples of nearly 100 per cent student activity in intramural sports. Certainly it is desirable for children to learn more than a single 26 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS sport, and they should at least be exposed to many forms of games they may not enjoy at once or ever. Especially should junior and senior high school pupils become thoroughly acquainted with recreative activities which they may follow during adult life. But these objectives are seldom served by championship events, which almost invariably lead physical educators to concentrate on the very least valuable types of athletics and the most experienced athletes! Nor does the senior high school provide the proper time or place for teaching new athletic games. Grades 10, 11, and 12 should provide opportunities for specialization where adult leisure-time interests will be established.5 It is significant that many persons who oppose them in other sports desire state championships in track and field events, and cross-country races-the very sports least adapted to adult interests and capacities, and the most dangerous to the health of adolescents. To the points made above the answer is quickly given by some public school men, "Private schools are well-provided with athletic fields and equipment but we are not." This leads to another "value" of championships: they help to obtain support locally for larger playgrounds and improved facilities. It is more than possible that the reverse is actually the true situation, for in most cases public interest is centered, by the school authorities, on a school team which fails, year after year, to win the championship. Consequently, parents and others interested in school affairs are provided with a very potent demonstration of local inefficiency, and tend to deny to the school the financial support for athletics which would, under other conditions, follow an honest request for play spaces for large numbers of players. Local school board members, knowing that physical education means training a few for championships are not to be criticized for refusing requests for additional facilities to support a losing endeavor. If the championship never existed it is more than possible that play spaces would be more freely provided than they now are.6 6 The use of artificial means to introduce new sports or continue outworn ones, is discussed fully in Part II. 6 In the very nature of things most schools must lose the championship every year. Moreover, it tends to be the rule that the same schools win repeatedly. On Long Island, with 45 schools competing, only 5 schools won Island basketball championships in 7 years. Of these, none ever won a state championship. Thus, 40 schools on Long Island competed for seven years without winning even a sectional championship entitling them to travel to a state tournament. This is a fair example of what will happen in any section of any state. THE CASE FOR CHAMPIONSHIPS 2 27 The Chief Stronghold of Championships By far the strongest argument for championships; the one given as supreme by their most faithful supporters is that in championships athletic associations are provided with a prize (in lieu of a purse of money----be~cause the association is "amateur") by which school officers may hold athletes to high scholarship, and other standa-rds of conduct. The argument is somewhat involved, but though it may seem far-fetched it is sound, in the sense that it is a true representation of events: 1. Local sporting men and others interested in advertising the community, accumulating glory, or humiliating neighboring towns, seek to improve the local school team by methods which detract from the value of interschool sports as educational activities. Moreover, they sometimes threaten the integrity of the scholastic program by insisting that players be used who refuse to study, who do not attend school and who upset discipline-all for the sake of the pecuniary or emotional satisfaction which winning teams bring. 2. These interests may be too strong to be met by the authority of the local principal. Often he would lose his position as well as his standing in the community were he to enforce, on his own responsibility, the elimination of players who did not meet his own scholastic standards., 3. In this quandary the local school administrator seeks aid from other sources and, finding other principals in the same predicament, bands with them to form a league. The league now prescribes rules which must be obeyed by all the members thereof. Any school breaking the rules, (by playing an ineligible player, for example), risks forfeiture of the game and even suspension from the league. Thus do school principals combine forces against local sporting interests, as like-minded people the world over join to protect themselves from the abuses of others who do not share their opinions. 4. But forfeiture of games and suspension from the league may mean nothing to the local enthusiasts, who are intent upon victory at any cost. Some stronger penalty is necessary to whip these persons (whose only care is for victory) into line. Therefore, championship honors are dispensed by league officials and the championship is denied to the school any of whose players are ineligible according to league standards. 5; Defenders of championships then aver: If championships be discarded, the chief hold which leagues have on member schools will be lost, and local sporting interests will insist that, since there is nothing to be gained from the league (no championship honors) there is no reason for abiding by league standards. "Consequently," say those who feel the need of championships 28 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS to hold schools in leagues which enforce eligibility standards which local administrators alone cannot enforce, "eligibility standards will decline, athletics will revert to conditions before championship events were conducted and chaos will be the ultimate result." To the extent that the account given above is true, championships may be defended-but not safely! For the very championship itself tends to aggravate some of the conditions which its supporters insist it eliminates. Local sportsmen now have a higher objective than ever before. Formerly they merely wanted a winning team, one which would win oftener than it lost. Now, through the championship, a single adverse score may mean total defeat in terms of the championship.7 The local sportsmen now hope and strive for supreme honors. Failure to win the championship depresses them more than the loss of several games did before each game was a crucial one. Nor is this view overdrawn. Laboratory proof of its truth may be secured almost any year in almost any interscholastic athletic association. But the argument for championships as necessary bait to catch and hold member schools in associations is not entirely true. It may be attacked first as a crutch for the support of relatively impotent school administrators. This is an unfair point, however. Local conditions must always guide the local school man. If sporting or advertising interests or community pride are stronger than local concern for the welfare of children-or if local enthusiasts are simply ignorant of the evils involved-the school administrator cannot be expected to oppose his will to theirs.8 On the other hand, the interscholastic athletic championship is a creation of school men, which they can destroy as they create. If school administrators join and abide by the rules of associations which do not conduct championships there is no force which will strongly oppose them, except in isolated cases.9 7 Recently a superintendent of schools, one of the strongest supporters of championships, reported in an open meeting that the local season had been a complete disappointment. "We won every game-then lost the last contest, and the championship. The bottom completely dropped out of the season for us," he admitted. 8 In all school affairs it must be remembered that the schools belong to the people. Their will must prevail when they have any definite opinions. The school man should beware, however, that he does not permit a small but active and highly articulate minority to dictate policies of which the great majority would not approve. 9 In 1929 a state athletic association constitution was submitted to the high school principals of New York. Of the 124 who replied, 86 stated their willingness to approve and abide by its rules, even though state championships were expressly forbidden by one of its major provisions. THE CASE FOR CHAMPIONSHIPS 29 Individual communities will doubtless be found where adult sportsmen, and even boards of education, will oppose membership in associations which pass restricting rules without providing the bait of championship honors. And these sportsmen and boards will be correct in at least half of their contentions: local school administrators should not have to submit to restrictions of outsiders in determining the personnel of their representative teams.10 It only remains for the school administrator to educate his community to the point of view that "victory over all, all the time" is harmful to both pupils and community. This may be a Herculean task, but no competent school administrator will deny that it ought to be done. School men should be the first to realize that fostering championships only increases the difficulty of the task; and they must soon realize that it is their task, which will grow more difficult with each succeeding year and each new championship decided. Other So-Called Values of Championships A particularly dangerous argument for state championships is that they will draw and hold schools in a state association. That is, state championships aid in effecting centralized control of athletics. It is the current belief of some administrators that centralization of control is desirable in athletics. The reasons usually given are that eligibility rules may be administered more impartially, that the personal element is removed when controversies arise and that uniformity and standardization are secured in eligibility rules and in other details, such as limitations on the number of games played by each team each season, the quality of officiating, and so on. Centralization, however, is one of the very least desirable conditions in athletics. Centralization always tends toward cramping uniformity in a field where diversity is the most fundamental quality to be preserved. Play itself, as contrasted with work, means multiform activity; its essential qualities are uniqueness and exploration; and its joys come from surprise and discovery. Play is creative, not repetitive."' But centralization means repetition and rigidity, and rigidity is death. 10 The alternative is outlined in Chapter X, pages 96 to 100. U To the degree that play is standardized it ceases to be play. To the extent that sports are defined in terms of rules they cease to be play, too. Therefore, the most recreative sports have the fewest rules, as hunting, fishing, mountain climbing, yachting, or even handball, tennis, and golf; while those which are least enjoyed by players have the most rules, as American football. See also F. R. Rogers, The Amateur Spirit in Scholastic Games and Sports (C. F. Williams & Son), iChapter XI. 30 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS A few examples will serve to illustrate the cramping effects of centralization. Certain state athletic associations rule or advise that no team may play more than a given number of basketball games during its season-to protect players' health. There are some schools in any state whose basketball season is ten weeks long and others have a twenty weeks' basketball season. Some use the same five or six players throughout the season while others have squads of twenty men. Under the, latter arrangement, each player participates in but a small part of most games. Obviously the rule described would seriously and improperly curtail the legitimate game activity of players in schools which have long seasons or large squads. Again, state laws concerning age limits are not equally applicable in different communities. City schools may organize several teams of players under eighteen years of age while small schools may need to use twenty-year-old players to provide a single full team.' Again, state rules which disqualify players entering school after certain dates seem necessary to discourage proselyting, but these restrictions always disqualify many players who are bona fide local pupils and who enter school too. late to benefit from activities which only the state standards prevent their enjoying. Uniformity is desirable in machines and wherever activities should be mechanized. Thus, a uniform medium of exchange is a mechanical substitute for barter, an intermediary between the. goods for sale and the goods wanted, but even in this field much of human value is lost. Uniformity in playing rules is necessary, too, in order that the game may be played at all. Finally, uniformity in ideals of conduct is essential to. the greatest satisfaction of players. But centralization, in practice, means cramping uniformity. If competing teams are equal in, ability, use the same playing rules and ha__ve-similar standards or ideals of conduct, any further tendency to uniformity is of questionable value at best. Occasionally interscholastic athletic championships will be defended as anmusements for the crowd, and doubtless this is the underlying motive which induces many persons to pray for their continuance. At a recent championship tournament the writer overheard an excited spectator remark, "Isn't this great! And they want to take these fine, clean, sporting events away from us. Why, they are the finest thing that ever happened!" This comment reflects 32 See pages 79 and 80, for a discussion of unfair conditions to small schools. THE CASE FOR CHAMPIONSHIPS 3 31 perfectly the wholly sincere., but just as completely circumscribed, outlook of the average adult devotee of interscholastic athletics. Educators will not approve of this "value," however. Under such a plan players become professional entertainers, who should be classed with vaudeville actors and professional athletes. If high school teams are organized and games are played for adult amusement, the players should receive a fair share of the. gate receipts to expend as they desire. But this would "professionalize" the players, a not undesirable state, of affairs if the whole business is openly conducted, as some high school orchestras now conduct their affairs.'3 But the school is not the. place for financially productive efforts. It is a place for learning, which involves making mistakes, a type of behavior which audiences seeking amusement do not care to witness. Education and professional entertainment are therefore incompatible by nature. Attempts to reconcile them can only result in harm to the learner and unfairness to the purchaser of entertainment. Advertisement of town, school, and college is, often an underlying motive with many who defend championship events. Doubtless championship teams do advertise their communities, though the publicity given has a doubtful value at best. But there is no gift without its price: the price of such "free" advertisements is paid by the Adolescent student-players who contribute their services, and sometimes even their health, without any measure of compensation. Moreover, for every championship won or glory achieved, there are many teams which suffer defeat: the glory and advertisement of town or school A is more than paid for by towns or schools B, C, D, and E. Thus is the championship like a lottery. Only one can win; the losing communities help to pay the costs of the advertising which benefits the winning community. Moreover, the lottery itself is incurably unfair since the schools with the largest enrollments, have by far the best chances of winning. If the advertisement were truly free it would be worth exactly its cost, which would be nothing; but it is f ar from free, either in terms of results to the 13' When adults insist upon spending their leisure time watching children at.play, and not through any interest in the children themselves except as actors on a stage, the wisdom of a culture which provides the leisure is open to serious indictment. Prohahly the remedy lies in more education. But any education which accustoms adolescensts to spectacles of adults excited over adolescent athletics is an unhealthy form of training for the children. The school must solve its problems more effectively if it is to save itself. 32 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS schools and towns in the area affected, or to the children whose bodies and minds are used. No one who takes any broader than a purely insular view will condone the advertising value of such an apparently "chancey" and actually fixed gamble.14 Some school administrators value the heightening and consolidation of self interest, the school spirit, engendered by participation in championship events. There is no doubt but that schools and communities whose representative teams engage in glory-tournaments become more self-conscious, and more loyal to each other and to their community and school traditions; and a clever administrator can sometimes turn this self-consciousness to good account. But, if not very carefully guarded and guided, a harvest is reaped in terms of upset routine and inflated and distorted interests of pupils in non-essentials. Moreover, even greater interest and local enthusiasm may and usually do accompany purely local rivalries between neighboring schools. Championships are quite unnecessary to school spirit. There is an advantage, too, in broadening the local horizon, but this objective may be reached by any plan of interschool competition. Moreover, the championship element is not only unnecessary to intensification of school spirit; it is artificial, and its artificiality renders it dangerous. Artificial enthusiasm breeds insincerity. Preparation of pupils for life conditions seems an effective argument for championships in scholastic athletics. It is urged that adult life is filled with such events, not only championships in athletics, but in card games, in community chest drives, in automobile and aeroplane races, in accomplishments of every description-the largest steamship, the tallest building, the fastest train, the champion walker, drinker, sword-swallower, bank account, and even the greatest earthquake, fire, battle, war, ad infinitum. The fallacy in this argument should be apparent. Job analyses and catalogues of contemporary human activities provide only one criterion for the determination of school curricula. Opposed to, or checking, this list must be a clear insight into the intrinsic values 14 Although the New York State Public High School Athletic Association had in 1928 some 400 member schools, over half of which had enrollments of less than 150 pupils, not a single state basketball championship has ever been won by a school with an enrollment of less than 750 pupils. All but two championships were won by schools with enrollments of over 1,500 pupils. THE CASE FOR CHAMPIONSHIPS 3 33 of each activity now followed. Teachers must protect and improve behavior along right lines, but discourage and destroy bad social practices; they are not bound to prepare children to indulge in all present life activities. Because liquors are illegally consumed quite generally in some parts of the country or in a certain city or because theft, is a common occurrence is no good reason for teaching these activities in school. Rather should educators provide an example of good behavior by refusing to permit pupils to engage in socially undesirable activities. Interscholastic championships must stand on other grounds than their prevalence in society to-day. From this brief analysis -it must appear that the case for championships is weak. Their chief defenders are local sporting men with no responsibility for the welfare of school children, newspaper writers anxious for copy, and school administrators in communities where the scholastic integrity of their representative teams is threatened by the first two groups mentioned above, who seek some means of checkmating these harmful influences. Only a very vulnerable and flimsy case can be made for championships. If their educational consequences to individual children are at all harmful, it is extremely doubtful whether anyone viewing the problem broadly would hesitate to advise their rejection from public schools. CHAPTER IV EDUCATIONAL CONSEQUENCES OF CHAMPIONSHIPS A Fundamental Principle It is a fundamental principle of social ethics in democracies that the individual shall not be sacrificed to group welf are.' The same principle should prevail in education. It is, supremely unethical to use pupils as "object lessons" for the sake of the group, when the consequence of the lesson is to handicap the individual. Discipline which harms the child but helps, the group (a practice which is worse than unethical) has no, place in democratic education, for it provides pupils with an example of wrong procedure to follow themselves. Moreover, careful investigation will reveal that practically every procedure. which harms individuals subjected to it, harms the society of which they are parts. The two are as closely joined as, in organic life, cells. and their aggregates are. Whatever harms the useful cells, harms the animal or plant as a whole. For example, a poison which attacks only epithelial cells will harm the animal as a whole. Likewise, a mile race which destroys the. health of the runner injures the society in which he lives, and injures it far more than in the body of the one who ran the. race, for the social group must shoulder the burden of supporting the runner whose health is destroyed, while the example. of suffering may harden the sensibilities, of all who. appreciate the sacrifice being made.. In education it is usually safe to measure the propriety of any suggested procedure in terms of its effects on individual pupils: if the individual is not positively improved by the process, it is unsafe for the group of which he is an integral and typical part. Consequences to Physical Health The most telling adverse criticism of championship events in the field of interschool sports is that they tend to injure the physical I This principle is ignored st times of great crisis, as when soldiers are conscripted for war duty, or when civil murderers are executed as example. 34 CONSEQUENCES OF CHAMPIONSHIPS 35 well-being of those players who strive for supreme honors; that is, of all who take the events seriously. Even to-day school administrators who are aware of the dangers of overstrain involved in highly competitive athletics require of each player a physician's certificate of competence to participate therein. It must be apparent that if dangers exist in the ordinary interschool contest, the hazards are greatly increased in league championship encounters, where players strive harder to win the coveted honors.2 It follows that as the championship includes a wider and wider area the danger to physical health must be multiplied many times. City championships offer more dangers than ordinary contests between local school teams. League championships, including contests between teams from neighboring rival cities, are more dangerous to health than city tournaments. Sectional championships are still more dangerous. And thus it continues. Injuries to health are seldom broadcast following championship events. The general public hears only of the victor, the glory, the heroes. The injury is ignored, but the players who suffer pay a great price for their caps and bells. Increased blood pressure, strained hearts, exhausted tissues, torn ligaments permanently weakenedthese are typical of the more obvious penalties extorted from adolescent athletes in any honor tournament. It is to be expected that injuries will occur in any athletic contest. Players should learn courage, that is, to "take chances" in adolescent life, and athletic injuries doubtless form a proper and important part of every normal boy's education. Championships, however, provide artificial stimuli, involving health hazards which are quite unnecessary. Ernst Joke, a German investigator studying the highly trained Olympic athletes at Amsterdam in 1928, reported, "There are two types of athletes, the temperamental and the 'muscle athlete. The former invariably failed at Amsterdam, the muscle type was always the victor. Furthermore, only certain athletes, because of unusual constitutions, can stand the strain of individual competition of the Olympic type." But any championship is an Olympic contest in miniature: its most ardent sponsors always cherish an ambition to give it the glamour and intensity of such an event. When these persons are given free rein over a number of years they exalt every phase of their circus, until at last it becomes another Olympic event, 2 See also Chapter IX of this volume, the section entitled "Emotional Overstimulation as a Health Hazard." 36 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS with all the attendant physical strains such affairs entail. Physical examinations of champions after their victories are won often reveal strains of a serious nature which are not apparent to the casual observer; but even the most superficial investigation will reveal countless cases of athletes who have played with broken ribs (tightly bandaged) or strained ligaments (carefully protected), and cases are on record of men who have left sick beds for the sake of championship honors, and have been crippled for the remainder of their shortened lives.3 Moreover, authentic cases have been cited in which strychnine has been given to athletes about to enter supreme tests of strength and endurance. A championship athletic team may be compared to a victorious army (and, indeed, coaches are prone to liken athletics to battles); the season is a war, the games are engagements, "major" and "minor," and striving for the championship is the "big drive." There are possibly more physical casualties in proportion to the numbers of combatants in the train of any modern interscholastic athletic championship than in the average war! Fewer deaths and mutilations, but more injuries-broken bones and heads, sprains, bruised muscles, and blood-letting. As was suggested above, a certain number of injuries are necessary. If the championship itself offered any great educational values the additional injuries it entails might be ignored, but even the strongest supporters of championships claim only minor educational gains from these affairs. The cost of championships in terms of impaired physical fitness alone is prohibitive. Consequences to Social Character4 The natural challenges to intense activity which are inherent in most competitive sports will adequately test and develop players' physical powers. As has been reported, however, championship contests provide too many breaking strains to make them safe or economical educational devices. Similarly, the natural social situations provided by informal intramural or semi-formal interscholastic contests provide valuable, because developmental, tests of social character. But the championship contest induces breaking strains socially as well as physically. The prize to be won stimu3N. P. Neilson points out that "state championships lead to extreme specialization, which often harms the individual physically.. " Moreover, "adolescent boys are often placed in games and kept in games against the advice of physicians.. " See page 48. 4 See also pages 89 to 91. CONSEQUENCES OF CHAMPIONSHIPS 3 37 lates the baser emotions; the pent-up enthusiasm of supporters and anxiety of players add fuel to the fire. The consequences, as observed by those of large experience, reveal that human nature is often not equal to the strain. Courtesy is at a discount; if good manners prevail the close observer will discover that often they are artificial masks to hide ugly thoughts and hopes. And masks are often discarded. The facial expressions of players reveal their own true attitudes. Good humor often is present, but those players who display it are conspicuous. "Wipe that smile *off your face," is the vulgar expression of many an otherwise gentlemanly coach to players who are enjoying themselves rather than seeking to overwhelm their opponents. Investigators have found that championship teams expect "the world to be served to them on a silver platter" when they return home. Gifts from local service clubs and public spirited citizens are received with scant thanks-as the, due of the conquerors. Dinners, medals, gold footballs, sweaters, and even gold watches are common forms of "showing our appreciation." It is important to remember that the snmaller towns are most lavish in their gifts: the service has been greater in proportion; but the players suffer most. Of far greater importance is the inescapable fact that the championship provides a situation in which justice, the essence of fair play, is absolutely denied, for the whole object of championship competition is to gain and win superiority for the sake of victory and selfish glory instead of equality for the sake of fair play and enjoyment of the game. Selfish desires, which human nature itself fosters too greatly, are raised to white heat by the flame of championship hopes, while sympathy for opponents must be actively discouraged, since it cools the ardor of struggles for selfish glory.5 Championships are, by their very nature, antisocial. Consequences to Recreative Habits The essential difference between work and play lies in the motives which initiate and keep them going. Work is always for s~ome ulterior objective or reward. Play provides its own satisfactions. Children build with blocks for the pleasure of building, and play 5The whole philosophy and purposes of civilization are opposed to the philosophy and purposes of cha mpionships. To espouse both at once is to reveal intellectual and moral obliquity as profound as wo'uld exist if a mathematician should insist, for example, that while X = Y and Y= Z, X is greater or less than Z. 38 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS tag for the joy of playing. Sportsmen-true sportsmen, not seekers of honor or notoriety-hunt and fish and explore for the joy of hunting and fishing and exploring rather than for the fox, which is saved to be turned loose again; or for the fish, which might have been purchased at the market; or the discovery, which of necessity is unexpected. To make work of activities which offer satisfactions of their own is to destroy the most precious qualities of playlife: spontaneity, self-forgetfulness, and natural responses to natural impulses. Play, like healthful food, needs no other stimulus than natural appetite.6 Play-life, then, yields that joy of living which is one of the chief satisfactions of existence. Work is but a means to an end-freedom to seek happiness by more direct methods. Happiness itself comes in play only when self is completely forgotten. Therefore, anything which changes play into work, that is, anything which tends to make the player conscious of personal gain, hence which makes him selfish, and renders play in any way remunerative, or makes it serve an ulterior motive, destroys the natural pleasure of the activity. Thus, nothing will destroy the play spirit more quickly than will a promise of personal glory. Since the promise of championship honors is a most effective method of substituting glory for natural pleasure in games and sports, he who organizes the city or state or nation for championships is degrading play into work for all who strive for the championships he organizes. The consequences to the physical and social characters of players of degrading games and sports to the level of vaudeville performances have already been cited. The loss in recreative habits and attitudes also must be very great. Conferring championship honors on players teaches them that games and sports may yield prizes as well as pleasure. The next step for athletes (in the same direction as, and beyond interscholastic championships) is to play chiefly, or only, for prizes, either financial or social, and for pupils in all play-activities (which have now become work) to lose spontaneity, to acquire self-consciousness, and to perform unwillingly.7 These consequences of championships do not occur invariably or universally. In spite of championship experiences, most athletes will enjoy, to a degree, their games. It is incontrovertible, however, that the effects of athletic championship activities always tend to dilute 6 See also Note 11, page 29. 7 And finally to become sophisticated, disillusioned, cynical, and then completely unhappy., CONSEQUENCES OF CHAMPIONSHIPS 3 39 the individual's pleasure in games and sports and to render play, potentially remunerative, transforming it into work. Effects on Physical Education Programs Possibly the greatest evils which athletic championships foster relate to physical education; and through the distortion of physical education programs, which in most states are compulsory for every pupil throughout school life, championships retard the physical and social development of every school child. The truth of this observation is substantiated by a comparison of the physical education programs in schools in which championship activities are wanted, and in states. where they are fostered, with schools in which championship activities are unwanted or barred, and in states where they do not exist. Further proofs are easily secured by close observation of the policies and philosophies of physical directors, coaches, and even school administrators who do favor championship tournaments and those who do not. Most athletic coaches, and other school officers who favor championships, concentrate their attention and services on the few bestdeveloped pu pils, those who are star athletes, but neglect those who are unfamiliar with games and sports- as well as those whose physical stature and constitutions preclude the possibility of their playing on school teams. Consequently, teachers and others in these schools indulge in at least four wholly indefensible educational malpractices. (1) They use the bodies of players to win championships much as an experimenter in a physiological laboratory uses animals to increase his knowledge of physiological processes. The latter practice may be condoned; the former pr actice is inhuman as well as undemocratic. (2) They overstrain and overspecialize, players already sufficiently proficient in sports to- engage in them healthfully and socially. (3) They ignore the superior claims of the novices, and the physically handicapped. (4) By setting the championship as the goal, games and sports are taught to pupils as means of self-aggrandizement rather than as pleasure and recreation. Adherents of championships may deny that the evil effects enumerated- above are inevitable. Nevertheless, it is only human for physical educators, especially in smaller communities where they are the coaches also, to strive for pree-minence in competitive fields. When their work is judged in terms of athletic victories (and this is true in more communities than supporters of championships will 40 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS admit) they are almost forced to neglect other activities less important in the public eye for those in which they win 'or lose public favor. The local public, too, often throws its. influence against any improvement of physical education when this gain entails a danger of losing the championship. Championships are news and entertainment for all, but education is seldom either news or entertainment for adults. Championships may serve local pride and salve local shame. Physical education will perform no such miracles. If championships exist they will drive the public to drive the school administrator to induce the physical director to concentrate on those who need him least. Recently New York State has provided a laboratory testing ground for the proof of these statements. In 1926 a new physical education program involving the redirection of physical educators' time and energies was presented for adoption. Instead of concentrating on athletics and athletes, teachers were advised to emphasize physical development, with concentration on those pupils most in need of guidance, and to readjust procedures in interschool contests so as to render these activities more educational in effect. Almost invariably the school officers throughout New York who most quickly and most completely endorsed and adopted the educational plan have been most eager to abandon championships, while the most vehement supporters of championships have been among the slowest to adopt the new physical education programs. Finally, the very logic of championships is diametrically opposed to fair play in games and sports. The good sportsman alWays seeks to play with his equals, avoids ostentation, and regrets those events which establish the fact of unquestioned superiority or inferiority of play. But the championship sets up "proof of superiority" as the chief goal of play. Its most apparent effect is to advertise to the world the relative merits of opponents. Thus, whoever supports good sportsmanship, equality between teams, and athletics for health and character, at the same time defending championsbiips as sound educational institutions and aids to good sportsmanship, involves himself in a hopeless contradiction of terms, to say nothing of actual results. The principles and procedures of democratic education and championships are as opposed to, each other as are the plus and minus signs in mathematical formulas. Physical education cannot effectively improve pupils' health or develop their sense of justice in the presence of championship events. CONSEQUENCES OF CHAMPIONSHIPS 4 41 The Case Against Championships In Chapter III the case for championships was reviewed briefly. Practically all of their strongest theoretical values were examined, among which the broadening effects of travel, increased skill in performance, and the deflation of over-developed pride are doubtless good results of championship tournaments. But these values are more easily and more completely achieved in other ways. The chief arguments offered by proponents of championships include increased interest in all forms of athletics, especially among pupils who otherwise would eschew them; increased financial suppport locally for fields and equipment; improved school spirit; vastly improved scholarship standards, involving the checkmating of local sporting interests; and centralization of athletic control. A rapid reading of the complete list gives the impression that championships are the bulwark of clean athletics in America, and even of physical education itself! In truth, however, the most cursory investigation into these claims reveals that those who make them have, in all sincerity and innocence, argued from post hoc ergo propter hoc premises. Interscholastic athletics have improved during the past few years. But other forces besides championship tournaments have been at work. Physical education has been introduced into schools. Trained physical educators now guide the conduct of athletics in many communities. Public opinion is changing. Newspaper publicity for both good and bad deeds has deterred many individuals from unsportsmanlike conduct and stimulated others to set good examples.'School principals have fought a good fight. It is not only likely that these influences have been the effective agencies for im.provement; it is probable that they have succeeded in spite of the deterrent effects of championships. Finally, the suggestions that championships are lifelike, and prepare for adult experiences, that they provide amusement for adults, and that they are good advertising agencies are boomerangs. When examined they are found to produce bad effects rather than good. The case for championships rests almost entirely on untenable hypotheses and unprovable assertions. On the other hand, the case against championships is not questioned even by those who urge their continuance. When "the welfare of individual pupils" becomes the criterion of value, championships are easily shown to be more dangerous to physical health the 42 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS more inclusive is the championship, while moral fibre is strained to the breaking point time and time again during such events. Moreover, the championship is a direct negation of the ideal of fair play, since it not only condones but even encourages great inequalities beýtween competitors. Recreative habits and attitudes are dealt serious blows by the supreme ideal of victory-over-all fostered by championships. Play is transformed into. work, and athletes are made more self-conscious and selfish than they could be made by any other means. The entire local physical education program is perverted, too, by concentration of teachers' interest and attention on the few who most need to, be allowed to play alone, together with neglect of those who most need to be protected and taught, and an inestimable amount of harm is dealt every other extra- curricular activity by the example set in sports, which reach and affect every pupil.8 It is proper to observe that "the baneful effects of championships" as outlined above do not constitute an insurmountable barrier to effective. physical education programs, nor do they affect in any obvious way the, outward health or social character of the average pupil. As most societies survive wars and most soldiers return from wars without serious out-ward defects, so do most schools maintain physical education programs, and most scholastic athletes survive championship experiences. The worst result of championships, like that of war, is the warped souls of those who live through them. Specifically, championships pervert the points of view of physical educators who coach representative school teams, and those:of pupils who play. When properly conceived, victory is wholly desirable, but struggles for championship honors, with their attendant results in heightened selfishness and degraded human sympathies, are wholly undesirable in adolescent life,' in democratic education, or indeed in any social life. 8 It is highly significant that the chief defense of scholastic championships is centered in smaller communities, for it is only there that the itownspeople take any great interest in scholastic teams, or exert any great pressure on the principal or superintendent. But it is the smaller towns that championships harm most surely and most extensively. Cities can afford coaches for athletes and physical educators for novices, Villages seldom can afford adequate 'physical education services alone. The championship therefore takes away from small communities the physical education services they need and need more than do cities, for physical defects are more prevalent in rural areas than in the city. Moreover, the devastating, effects on children of winning championships are greater in the town than in the city. Finally, to use a vulgar figure, the dice are always loaded against the smaller communities. CHAPTER V OPINIONS ON CHAMPIONSHIPS The Value of Opinion "If opinion be taken away, no man may consider himself harmed..." Thus thought and spoke the Stoics, according to Marcus Aurelius. Against this comforting belief modern science sets its own mechanistic philosophy of causality. Every event has its own causes: if the event is unwanted it may be avoided (prevented, circumvented) by bringing to bear different "causes" or "prevents" to redirect the course of life.' According to science, then, athletic championships either do or do not injure health or social character, and only a scientific investigation can determine their effects one way or the other. Opinion, according to the scientific viewpoint, is to be heavily discounted in measuring facts. Too many causal influences are at work in any situation, and especially in human affairs, for individuals to be able unerringly to select the predominant causal factors precipitating events, or to weigh their relative powers accurately. Nevertheless, opinions or beliefs are often based on valid experiences and considered judgments and so may have some significance. For example, if ia witness observes that many players succumb to injuries, and violate the canons of fair play in championship tournaments, while such outcomes are observed to be comparatively rare in athletic contests similar in other respects to championship affairs, he is using (carelessly perhaps, but still using) the scientific method, and his opinions have some value. On the other hand, the broadest experiences available in history fail often to disclose the truth. Even the greatest explorers once thought the earth was fiat. As late as in the earliest years of the present century 1The principle of causality has only a precarious foothold in philosophic thought. The reader has only to ask "what causes individuals to desire other instead 6f 'natural' events?" and "what causes these causes," to throw the followers of the causality principle into confusion. 43 44 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS scientists declared that heavier-than-air flying machines were mathematically absurd, that is,7 impossibilities. The sun once made diurnal journeys around the earth! Opinions change, but truth, says science, is universal and eternal. Thus, every teacher in America might reject championships to-day, and embrace them to-morrow; in truth, however, their actual or potential values would not change.2 But even this statement may be misleading. In the realm of human behavior the very fact that an opinion is widely held affects the lives of those who hold it and are aware that it is generally accepted. Simple belief in the virtue of any act tends to strengthen the character of him who holds the belief and performs the act in accordance with his convictions. But beliefs do not always uplift those who live by them. Beliefs in ghosts, talism'ans, divine right and purgatory, and even of the sacred rights of marriage, property, religion, and trial by jury have profoundly affected society; but their ill effects are now thought by some to surpass any good they may accomplish. Indeed, the greatest enemy to human life to-day may be the belief, fostered by science though not by scientists, that truths are eternal-that, once formulated and proved, a natural law or principle remains unaltered throughout time and space. On the contrary, the single law which science has discovered to be eternal is that everything else in the universe but that law shall change continually.3 Thus, light now travels in circles instead of in straight lines; consequently, our universe is circumscribed, closed off, finite, instead of infinite. The world is an oblate spheroid instead of round or fiat; blind patriotism is a vice instead of a virtue; loyalty is a snare- as often as a guide; education is growth rather than pouring-in; and championships, may be scourges rather than honors. These considerations indicate that children ought to be informed concerning, if not sympathetic toward, the opinions or beliefs which will be prevalent during their own lives. Furthermore, they should 2 The most dramatic challenge to "eternal truth" and "democracy" may he found in Ihsen's An Enemy of the People. Dr. Stockmann declares: "The majority is always wrong...The majority never has right on its side. Never I say! That is one of the social lies that a free, thinking man is hound to rehel against.... Yes, yes, you can shout me down, hut you cannot gainsay me. The majority has might-unhappilyý-hut right it has not. *.'. What sort of truths do the majority rally round? Truths so stricken in years that they are sinking into decrepitude. When a truth is so old as that, gentlemen, it's in a fair way to hecome a lie. " 3 The implications of the "quantum theory" even more than "relativity" hear out this statement. OPINIONS ON CHAMPIONSHIPS 45 become familiar with, not dying truths, but truths in the making. Therefore teachers must be alert to new developments; not only for the sake of their curricular programs, but also to keep their pupils abreast of, if not ahead of their parents. It is the function of this chapter to report opinions as held to-day and yesterday by educators on the propriety of interscholastic athletic championships. Opinions of State and National Leaders In the United States to-day two educational groups have the greatest national influence in interscholastic athletics. The first of these includes the National Council of the National Federation of State High School Athletic Associations, who are the elected representatives to this organization of 29 state high school athletic associations. Their attitude toward championships is indicated by an action at their 1929 convention when, by unanimous vote, they passed the rule: WHEREAS, Our high school athletics are constantly being exploited by agencies and for purposes generally devoid of any educational aims and ideals, specifically: for purposes of advertising, publicity, community, institutional, and personal prestige; financial gain; entertainment and amusement; the recruiting of athletic teams and other purposes, none of which has much in common with the objectives of high school education; and, WHEPREAS, This exploitation tends to promote a tremendously exaggerated program of interscholastic contests, detrimental to the academic objectives of the high schools through a wholly indefensible distortion of values, and, in general, subversive of any sane program of physical education; and, WHEREAS, Basketball lends itself in a peculiar way to this sort of exploitation so that in many high schools the same players participate in two or more games per week throughout the season and teams participate in three or more basketball tournaments in a season; therefore be it RESOLVED, That we hereby instruct the executive committee of the National Federation to refuse to sanction any interstate basketball tournaments for high school teams. The second group of national importance includes some seventeen state directors of physical education. Of these, at least fourteen have recently adopted the policy of "reducing emphasis on championship athletic tournaments" while at least twelve are definitely opposed to state championships, especially in team-game sports. Some of these directors still favor championships in certain sports, 4 Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin. 46 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS as does Dr. Allen G. Ireland of New Jersey, for example; others are opposed to any form of state championships but support Yor the present district championships as does Dr. N. P. Neilson of California. Typical opinions of these officials as stated in recent ' letters are as follows: I feel very strongly that the abolition of state championships is a step forward. We have abolished all state championships except those in tennis and track, and I expect in the future those will be eliminated also.5 In my opinion, state championships for either boys or girls, as traditionally organized and conducted, are undesirable. However, I do not believe that one is justified in making a blanket condemnation of state championships.6 I will say that we had little trouble in convincing the school principals of the advisability of abolishing football championships. We are concentrating on adding baseball to this list next year, with the idea of waiting on the developments regarding basketball championships.7 In this state we do not have state championships in athletic contests.8 Relative to the matter of state championships I wish to say that I am willing to go on record as opposed to them in principle. By the same token I am opposed to state championships in singing and other specialized phases of school subjects.9 It is difficult for me to see how state championships or the contests that make up championship tournaments in the team-game sports offer anything more to any of the parties concerned-player, spectator, student body-than does the ordinary game of the regular schedule. On the other hand, I believe the championship contests give rise to difficult and even objectionable situations and problems which do not occur, at least to any great extent, during the regular season.10 I am not in favor of state championships in high school athletics. Unquestionably the athletic program... should be guided by the same fundamental principles which underlie all education. As an educational procedure such championships cannot be justified.' I do not believe that state championships are conducive toward placing and keeping athletics on an educational plane.u Our State Athletic Association has really not legislated in the matter, but 5 N. P. Neilson, State Director, Division of Health and Physical Education, California. 6 J. R. Sharman, State Director, Physical and Health Education, Alabama. 7 C. M. Miles, State Supervisor of Physical and Health Education, Florida. 8 B. E. Packard, Deputy Commissioner of Education, Maine. 9 Edgar W. Everts, State Director of Physical and Health Education, Minnesota. 10 Allen G. Ireland, State Director of Physical and Health Education, New Jersey. 11 C. L. Brownell, Supervisor of Health and Physical Education, Ohio. 12 Eliot V. Graves, State Supervisor of Physical and Health Education, Virginia. OPINIONS ON CHAMPIONSHIPS 4 47 the attitude of most of the principals is away from state or national championships.... I am opposed to state championships but believe in. curbing the tendency through education rather than legislation.13 The question of state championships has been much discussed in West Virginia and all have been eliminated with the exception of basketball. Personally, I see little good in holding these championship events. They cannot be justified on any educational grounds and serve only to advertise the institution at which held..0." I am opposed to both state and sectional championships, for I am convinced from experience they are conducive of all that is undesirable and are educationally unsound. Championships cannot be defended except a's supplying the need for income derived to administer state athletic associations. We should consider this however in meeting expenses of these associations2' The only two states whose directors of physical education are known to favor state championships in scholastic athletics are Maryland and Delaware. Mr. P. 5. Prince of Delaware states: I see no harm in state championships, provided they are conducted under proper supervision, and do not require too strenuous a preparatory season for the contestants.... I am opposed to state or interstate tournaments where contesting teams are required to play four or five games on successive nights. I feef that such events are harmful to young boys. That these opinions reflect an approaching rather than a passing attitude toward championships in interscholastic athletics is indicated by the fact that the National Federation had its 1929 rule under consideration for two years previous to final action, and that it contemplates in 1930, an extension of the sports in which national championships are banned. to include other tournaments such as track and field events. For the state directors of physical education the trend is indicated by the fact that three years ago none had taken a definite public stand in opposition to state championships, while to-day honor' tournaments have been actively and successfully opposed by the directors in two of the largest and most populous states,' and others hre planning early action. The attitude of the California Director is clearly and courageously stated as follows: For a number of years state championships in swimming, track, tennis, baseball, basketball and football have been held. Each section determined its champion-then the section champions met to decide the winner in the state.. 13 Carl Schrader, State Supervisor of Physical Education, Massachusetts. 1L4 Melville Stewart, State Director of Physical Education, West Virginia. 15 Win. G. Moorhead, State Director of Health Education, Pennsylvania. 118 California and New York. 48 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS A year ago all state championships were voted out, except in track. You will find more than 80 per cent of all the principals in California schools not in favor of state championships. The usual arguments given in favor of state championships are: 1. They are of great value to those taking part. 2. They develop school spirit and loyalty. 3. There is educational value in visits to other schools. 4. They hold certain boys in school. 5. They prepare athletes for colleges. 6. They bring honor to the school. These values can all be realized, granting they are desirable, through interschool competition in leagues composed of eight schools or less, when arranged for fairness as to size of student bodies or some other means which might be more accurate. There are many valid reasons why state championships should not be held. Some of them are: 1. State championships lead to extreme specialization, which often harms the individual -physically and socially. 2. The nervous strain of the prolonged schedule detracts from valuable school work, both of players and student body. 3. Preparation of championship teams tends to put the emphasis in loyalty upon cheering a few gladiators, rather than upon participation by every student in some activity which brings development and honor to him and his school. 4. Financial support of championship teams leads to commercialization in which social groups in the community become very much interested. 5. Adolescent boys are often placed in games and kept in games against the advice of physicians, because of the pressure on coaches and principals to win games. 6. In California, because of distances and large number of schools, the season is prolonged to such an extent that the winning teams play as many as fourteen football games in one season. Even college coaches admit six or seven should be the maximum number. 7. The newspaper notoriety showered upon ind-ividual players and the school creates an ego in many cases which is-undesirable, and causes warped social development. 8. An extreme interscholastic program definitely interferes with the natural program of the whole school. 9. Educationally it is wrong to shower. most attention upon a few people and neglect the rest. If this were done in English and mathematics, we would soon hear from the parents, and justly so. I am confident California will succeed in eliminating state championships completely in the near future, even if it becomes necessary to secure State Board action to do so. I sincerely believe Physical Education will benefit greatly through their complete elimination, and I, in. the capacity of State Director, shall work hard toward this end. Among educational theorists in universities the opinion is quite OPINIONS ON CHAMPIONSHIPS 49 general that championships, especially state championships, are educationally undesirable, while in the field of physical education Professor Jesse F. Williams writes: 17 In conclusion, then, it would appear to me that state athletic championships are unsound educationally because they provide nothing as containing worth while experience; in themselves they are blind alleys. Moreover,.. they are unsound because they are not physically wholesome. Local School Administrators' Opinions A nation-wide poll of school superintendents' and high school principals' opinions concerning championships probably would underwrite the action of the National Federation of State High School Athletic Associations and the programs of the state directors of physical education. Probably, too, it would go farther, advising the elimination of all national or inter-sectional athletic tournaments, and probably it would also reject state tournaments. Such a poll has not yet been made. State-wide reports are available from California, however, which may represent progressive western opinion, and from New York, which may represent fairly conservative eastern opinion. During October 1927 a questionnaire was submitted to the high school principals of California, requesting their opinions on three problems concerning athletics. The second question was: "Do you favor state high school championships in athletics?" In answer to this question sixty senior high school principals voted for state championships while two hundred fifty-nine principals were opposed to their continuance. Only twelve principals replying to the questionnaire were undecided in their views on this subject. This report is highly significant, since it came from local administrators after several years' experience with championships, and involved the rejection of a tradition, thus running counter to the apparent trend of developments.18 In December 1927 the opinions of high school principals in New York were sought. The form of the query was a positive statement with definite replies to be underlined. The statement was: "New York State championships in interschool athletics should be abolished." To be underlined were: now, 1930, 1935, possibly, never. 17 The American Physical Education Review, December 1928, page 645, "Are State Championships Educationally Sound?" 18 It should be noted that California schools have enjoyed the services of the California Interscholastic Federation, whose governing body has been of great service to the local principals in solving athletic problems, maintaining eligibility standards, and in other ways. 50 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC- ATHLETICS Two hundred six replies were returned. Forty principals indicated their desire for immediate abolition of state championships, twelve wanted championships abolished in 1930, and two wanted action postponed until 1935. Eighty-two indicated their "open-mindedness" on the problem by voting possibly, while forty-two desired indefinite continuance of -championships. Thus, in 1927 there was a wide disagreement of opinion among New York secondary school administrators regarding state championships. The trend of opinion in New York is indicated by the returns from a questionnaire submitted in March 1929, which related to points contained in a "proposed reorganization of the state public high school athletic association." 19 Two questions were framed to determine the opinions of school administrators on the necessity and desirability of championships. The first question was: "Are state championships necessary to protect the integrity of interschool sports in -your district?" The answer was an emphatic negative. Nineteen principals voted yes; one-hundred-twenty voted no. Fifteen gave no answer, while nine others gave indefinite replies. The second question was: "Are they (state championships) desirable educational procedures?" The answers were as follows: yes, 38; no, 90; no answer, 21; with reserva~tions*, 11; questionable, 3. In. 1929_Floridia abolished state championships in football and baseball. This is a first step toward the elimination of all state championships in Florida.20 West Virginia also has eliminated all state championships except in basketball. Opinions of the Most Experienced Administrators Assuming that school administrators whose local teams had participated in state championships were especially qualified to judge of the effects of actual participation in these tournaments (though the harm produced by championships extends to all who are in any way touched by them) forty-seven principals and superintendents 19 In December 1928 the Central Committee of this association abolished all its state championship events, and in February a symposium on this action was published in New York State Education, February 1929, pp. 482-87. Consequently, the subject was a live issue. 20 The report of the Columbia University Survey Staff of the Educational 5urvey Comimission for the state of Florida includes the following advice: "(State) Championships should be kept out of the schools."' OPINIONS ON CHAMPIONSHIPS 51 were requested to give opinions on the advisability of their continuance.21 Of the forty-one principals and superintendents who responded, only eleven desired the retention of championship tournaments. (See Table I.) One of these modified his approval by the introductory statement: Whether state basketball championship tournaments should be continued or discontinued is dependent upon the amount of stress the individual schools place upon the training of the few boys who participate in such tournaments. In schools where a few boys receive the major attention of the physical director for the sole purpose of producing a winning team for that school, state tournaments are decidedly a detriment. If a majority of the schools of the state or even if a large minority of the schools are doing this then by all means should state tournaments be abolished. TABLE I OPINIONS OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS WHo HAVE SENT TEAMS To NEW YORK STATE BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENTS, 1922-1929 * Favor Opposed to School Administrators Champion- Undecided Championships ships Principals........................... 4 2 11 Superintendents.................. 7 3 14 Principals or superintendents from schools enrolling more than 500 pupils........................ 7 2 17 Principals or superintendents from schools enrolling fewer than 500 pupils............................ 4 3 8 Total...................11 5 25 *A careful reading of the eleven letters whose authors favor championships indicates that three writers may reverse their opinions. Of the five who are undecided, one states "I would abolish all (state) tournaments if that were within our province." Another: "If some way could be devised to keep the same standards.. and at the same time discontinue all tournaments, I think I would be for it." Another: "I see no great objection to the plan if it, is continued; however, I am not heartily in favor of it." Another: "State championships don't mean a thing in high school athletics. The abolition of the same does not affect our athletics in the least." On the other hand, the most ardent supporter of championships could extract no satisfaction from the 25 letters of those who oppose such tournaments. It is safe to assert thab five years ago hardly a single one of these men would have been willing to be quoted publicly as opposed to state championships-for they voluntarily sent their teams to these events. "21All those in New York 5tate in cities and villages which had sent teams to state basketball tournaments during the past eight years.I 52 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS The reasons given by these eleven administrators for approving championship tournaments included many of those discussed in Chapter III. "Increased interest and participation in athletics" was given six times; "good effect on school spirit" was mentioned five times; "upholding scholarship and eligibility rules" was named three times; "control of athletics by public school authorities rather than by colleges and universities" was given three times; "improved morale in the community" was mentioned three times; "centralized control of athletics" was mentioned twice; "improved local educational facilities" was mentioned twice; "cultural benefits of travel" was noted once; and "a better health program is made possible" was reported once. Most of the opinions favoring championships were modified by such statements as "there are also some disadvantages... there have been times (in state and sectional tournaments) when it did not appear that much attention was given to the physical welfare of the boys concerned"; and "your knowledge of such contests may. be so much more extensive than mine, that you may have found sufficient reasons for discontinuing them." Opposed to these eleven school administrators who favor state championships in New York are twenty-five principals and superintendents who are positive in their rejection of such events. Their reasons covered the maj or topics included in Chapter IV. Eight indicated that the health of players was endangered or harmed; seven were confident that the social welfare of players or spectators or both was harmed; eleven were positive that the physical education program, and especially the attention given to "mass athletics" -and individual pupils,"~ was definitely hampered by local drives for championships. Three stressed specifically overemphasis on winning as the chief or sole objective of sports which championships foster. It is significant that eight letters gave no specific reasons for rejecting championships. In most of these cases condemnations were made without any reservations whatsoever; in the manner of persons who had seen so much harm come from championships that they did not care to dwell on the subj ect. One writer, who has been principal of two high schools which, during his administration, have participated in, and won, "several so-called state championships," including a state basketball championship in 1929, concluded with the following statement: OPINIONS ON CHAMPIONSHIPS 53 So far as I am personally concerned I most sincerely hope that no team representing the school of which I am principal will in the future be sent to compete in state championships. A superintendent who has coached several contenders for state championships, and who has been both principal and superintendent of schools in cities (in both eastern and midwestern states) which have sent many teams to championship tournaments wrote briefly: I am opposed to state basketball tournaments because I do not believe they can be justified from an educational standpoint. Another superintendent wrote: I am of the'opinion that it is not to the best interests of our high school boys to participate in athletic contests which by their very nature make the matter of winning appear to be all-important. In most cases the opinions cited have been accompanied by supporting actions. Several administrators have already taken steps to eliminate further state championship competition in their districts. In Buffalo, for example, the high school principals, with the approval of the superintendent of schools, unanimously passed the following regulation in May 1929:... It is the opinion of the high school principals of this city that it will be for the best interests of our athletic activities to maintain in the future an athletic organization of our own, confined exclusively to our own schools. For some years San Francisco and Oakland have refused to engage in most state championship competitions, and recently Los Angeles withdrew from all state championships "except track." In March 1929, the Cleveland high schools decided to forego participation in state championships and the Detroit schools will engage in no more "out-of-state competition." New York City has long confined its secondary school athletic program largely to intra-city competition, and Rochester has definitely turned its back on state championship competition. These rejections of championships are the result of experience, and the determination of educational administrators so to direct interscholastic athletics that these undoubtedly valuable recreative and educational activities will serve the best interests of the pupils engaged in them. CHAPTER VI THE OUTLOOK Two Alternatives The recent rejection of state and national championships by educational authorities signals the approach of a crisis in interschool athletics, for it strikes much deeper than simply the elimination of a few sports tournaments which apparently cost more than they are worth. Actually the whole structure of centralized interscholastic athletic control is threatened. Moreover, the new trend must be interpreted as a positive rejection of "winning"~ as the chief goal of athletic endeavor, for the "victory cult" exalts the championship tournament as the crowning phase of the entire athletic program-as the keystone of the arch of triumph-and so it is.- If winning be a proper supreme goal of games and sports, then championships are essential to the plan. But if joy-in-playing, recreation, and diversion as viewed by players, or health and social character as viewed by teachers, be the chief objectives and values of games and sports, then the scores of contests are more or less incidental, like the speedometer records clicked off during automobile tours, and therefore are not to be exalted and feared as they are forced to be by the very existence of championships. Two alternatives are available to those who must determine the future of interscholastic athletics. Either the present tendency in the Middle West toward higher organization and "bigger and better championships" will be continued, or the present tendency in the East and Far West toward recreative athletics for all with steadily decreasing concern for the glory of championship teams will be gradually spread throughout the United States. The third alternative-a standstill-is absolutely impossible in the present dynamic state of western culture. Instead of stagnation and petrification of customs, changes are effected in modern society more quickly and with less friction than ever before. Whoever or whatever remains quiescent is jostled into a shapeless, mean54 THE OUTLOOK 55 ingless mass. The future will provide either more, greater, and more respected interschool sports championships; or fewer, smaller and less respected ones. Educators, above all other agents of social progress, should be "in league with the future." Seven Growth Histories Future idevelopments may be pictured graphically, past developments serving as guides for the projection of expectancy curves. In Chart III, page 56, seven curves are shown, corresponding to seven histories. Four curves rrepresent scholastic, and thee represent other developments. Each is projected into the future, in an attempt to picture faithfully what should occur if new conditioning factors do not intrude, and if existing ones do not greatly change their potency. The names given to curves are generic, and are attempts at averages rather than representations of the histories of specific institutions. "Harvard" represents those schools and colleges which possess the longest traditions and experience, and which are definitely striving to harmonize educational theory and interschool sports practice-that is, those institutions which have passed out of their athletic adolescence. History justifies the changed direction of the "Harvard" curve in 1926-29 as there is a definite tendency at Harvard to-day to increase the number of contacts with Yale, and vice versa, and at other colleges in New England to emphasize the game rather than victory, and to give players freedom to work out their own destinies. The future is projected as a return to the ideal of player-controlled and school-aided interschool games and sports.1 "Stanford" represents those younger schools and colleges whose faculties and student bodies are most closely in touch with "Harvard." "Stanford" is projected as lagging behind the leaders, but steadily drawing closer to them. There are many actual cases of this type, in both public and private high schools, and in privately endowed colleges and universities on both eastern and western seaboards. "Illinois" represents an average of middle west school and college conditions. Its "future" is projected as lagging behind the leaders, due to its briefer experience, but catching up with them, nevertheless. 1 See note pages 111 and 120. 56 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS IS'j 0 THE OUTLOOK 57 A fourth example is included to picture an opposite extreme to that of interschool championships prevailing over long periods of time. Reed College in Oregon never has permitted organized interschool athletics, though occasionally informal games and sports are indulged in between Reed students and those in other institutions. Thus, the "Reed" curve is practically a straight line in the area indicating faculty proscription of interschool athletics, though an alternative future development of return to the ideal is suggested as possible. The three other curves represent the three types of interest which may have the greatest influence on the future of interschool athletics. "Spectators" are represented as possessing no imagination; they witness and approve without criticism each new development which increases their pleasure. Spectators, per se having no personal interest in children, or public interest in society, may be expected to applaud each new toy which may help beguile the passing hours. "Vested Interests" represent the athletic supply agencies to some extent, but more truly the paid athletic coaches, managers, and promoters (since athletic supply dealers may profit more by the abolition of championships than by their retention). "Vested Interests" are slow to recognize their opportunities, but grow in strength and purpose in geometric leaps. If they acted alone, they would soon throw athletics into chaos-a form of warfare or at least a Circus Maximus. "Academic Faculties" are pictured as at first increasingly opposed to any new departure from traditional school activities. Then, as the values of interschool sports become apparent, educators encourage their extension. Still later, the tradition established, and swinging down toward over-emphasis and the unsocial practices of high organization and championships, academic faculties gradually withdraw their encouragement. But they go too far until, the situation being practically abandoned by the faculty friends of athletics, conservative and scholastic forces again handicap those who engage in interschool sports. But this discouragement is of a mild type, nor does it eliminate interschool sports-on the contrary, new friends are made who once more aid players in finding play spaces and opponents. It is highly probable that the actual developments in "Harvard," 58 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS "Stanford," and "Illinois" would have returned to the "Theoretical Ideal" by 1920 had not spectators and money interfered. These two are represented as tending to encourage high organization and championships with greater and greater force each year. The problem confronting the historian is the accurate weighing of these factors against the educator factor. But another and more real problem confronts statesmanlike educators to-day. It is the employment of some agency which will reduce the opposition of spectators and money to their educational program. Fine words and noble ideals-"the welfare of children"will not avail at this point. A more satisfying substitute must be found if selfish interests are to abandon their treasures. Substitutes for Interscholastic Championships An adequate appreciation of the need of some substitute for interscholastic championships2 can be had only through sympathetic understanding of the plight in which small community inhabitants find themselves. Leisure time has been thrust upon contemporary society without preparation and almost without warning, but those living in small communities do not enjoy the manifold facilities for vicarious recreation which literally thrust themselves in the way of the city dweller. Thus, most smaller-town citizens do not possess the means to support professional baseball and hockey leagues. Consequently, smaller-community society turns to the diversions at hand, and forms the habit of attending and supporting school-boy sports events much as the urbanite attends and supports avowedly professional sports. The high school football field is the small town's Polo Grounds; its basketball court is its Madison Square Garden, and those spectators who now attend schoolboy sports events will abandon this diversion only when they are supplied with more satisfactory amusement than schoolboy sports. Many methods are available to accomplish this object.3 But 2 "Interscholastic championships" is used here to include all contests to which spectators are drawn in large numbers or in which "winning" is the chief objective of players. 3Supplementary adjustments to shift adult attention away from schoolboys' contests should be made by school administrators. One is to schedule all interschool contests on afternoons of week days. This suggestion has the additional merit of being a sound educational procedure. Another is to organize so many teams and provide so many interschool contests in each sport that the results of games lose their significance to the fan, who must "have something at stake" to satisfy his predatory instincts. This also is sound educational procedure, and has been advised in various forms by several college administrators. THE OUTLOOK 59 adult sportsmen are solving the problem for themselves by organizing "semi-professional" athletics, often beginning with "boxing clubs," which expand their membership and range of activities as demand exceeds supply. The grievous mistake made by educators is that as individuals they often oppose the formation of these clubs, while as groups in interscholastic athletic associations they have used their powers to prevent schoolboys from participating in the activities of out-of-school organizations. The favorite methods are rules which bar these players who receive money for athletic exhibitions from playing on school teams, and rules which prohibit school team members, substitutes, or even those hoping to earn places thereon, from playing on teams of any other organizations during the current interschool seasons. It is difficult to characterize accurately this dog-in-the-manger policy of discouraging sincere athletes from playing where and when they desire, as though they were incompetent and wholly inexperienced children, whom the school had taught nothing, for educators are almost universally sincere in believing that "amateur" and "participation-in-school-games-only" rules protect both the integrity of amateur sport and the schoolboy's health. Actually they accomplish no such objects. Amateur rules are helpless to protect athletes from the contaminating influences of money which, after all, is but a medium of exchange and a poor substitute for personal honor and privilege. The sooner so-called amateur rules are entirely done away with, the better for true amateurism.4 A gross inconsistency is involved, too, for the very men who most vehemently defend rules prohibiting schoolboys from receiving money for performances are the strongest supporters of championships which yield the direct returns for which money is but a poor substitute. Again, "non-participation-in-outside-activities" rules do not protect health to any great extent, while those persons who defend such rules as health measures are again the very ones who organize and support the tournaments most dangerous to physical welfare, that is, championships.5 Finally, if games and sports are good for players under school management, the sooner after adolescence is reached players learn For an explanation of this statement see F. R. Rogers, The Amateur Spirit in Scholastic Games and Sports, Chapter V. 5 In which players go through from three to six basketball games within 72 to 96 hours, for example. See also Chapter X, pages 101-102. 60 THE FUTURDIEP- OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS to meet the unquestionably trying social situations surrounding professional sports the better for the boys. To-day schoolboy bands, orchestras, singers, reporters, illustrators, draftsmen, cartoonists, actors, machinists, and woodworkers sell their services in the open market. Teachers rejoice that extra- curricul ar situations can come during the training period; and at least one university is organized to provide remunerative experiences and training alternately.,, Amateur rules in schoolboy sports are chiefly a pied de nez to the type of management which usually characterizes semiprofessional sports, and the type of environment which often surrounds them. Aside from the problem 'of social environment, however, if games and sports are good for players, and if competence therein commands financial remuneration, it is no more "(wrong"~ for players to support themselves financially by playing ball than by playing the piano or the flute. Consequences of "Semi -Professional" Athletics When school authorities encourage their best athletes to engage in "semi-professional" (part-time-paid) athletics local communities can better afford to provide themselves with fairly competent teams for their entertainment on week-ends. Thi 's adjustment will reduce the skill of school teams, and eliminate the sometimes troublesome "stars." Scholastic athletics, as such, will then cease to interest the spectator, and the latter will cease to insist on championships. Nor are these potential events improbable. Every large city furnishes a perfect example; in cities enough materials' and money are available to purchase entertainment without using schoolboys; and in cities there is very little public concern over the fortunes of high school athletic teams, and almost none for the life and death of state championship tournaments. Of course school administrators and physical educators should not fail in their duty as citizens to help maintain local professional athletics on as high a social plane as possible. Whether a music teacher is justified in refusing to permit pupils to play in paid orchestras as well as in the school orchestra; whether an English teacher is justified in refusing to. permit pupils to play on the local or any neighboring city theater stage as well as in a school play; whether a principal is justified in refusing to permit a senior who has sold books, written for the local newsIsAntioch College. THE OUTLOOK 61 paper, or set type for money, to act as class valedictorian; or whether he is justified in refusing to permit a pupil who has received money for athletic activities such as gymnastics, coaching, officiating, selling athletic goods, or playing on a professional ball team to play on the school team-these are problems for local school administrators to solve. But one policy for sports and another for music involves an inconsistency which logic can hardly justify, and which events throughout the United States have proved to be unwise. By discouraging schoolboys from playing on outside teams school principals who administer interscholastic athletic associations have saved many excellent players for their own teams, but they have brought upon themselves and their physical educators and coaches a Pandora's box of evils; and have provided themselves with tasks like Tantalus had. By reversing this policy; that is, by encouraging local semi-professional games and sports, and by encouraging the more mature and superior athletes in school to engage in these events, educators will at one stroke divert spectators from attendance at or interest in schoolboy athletics, provide the local community with more or less wholesome adult entertainment, give scholastic athletics greater vocational values, and scholastic athletes examples of greater proficiency to emulate, save local fans from the harmful personal effects of depending on juveniles for their own entertainment, and doubtless stimulate the local population to greater leisure-time participation in outdoor activities. Financial interests, too, may benefit from such an adjustment. Semi-professional organizations will need just the type of coach which many schools now have, but will no longer need; these organizations, as well as private clubs and individuals, will use more, and more expensive equipment than do high schools; and doubtless most coaches will be glad to shift their interests to more mature groups.7 The trend of semi-professional athletics, which lost most of its following with the advent of interscholastic athletics, seems again to be on the make. It may safely be predicted that the prospects for a healthy future for professional sports, including especially the semi-professional type, are very bright. Whether a more cultured society will result may be questioned, but this is a problem 7A coach is one who is more interested in the game than in the players, just as a manufacturer or stage director is more interested in his product or play than in his workers. Those men who now have coaching duties but are more interested in the players than in the scores of games may be called physical educators. 62 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS for the sociologist and the citizen, and is to be answered in the same terms for both town and city. The incidental gains to education and to interschool sports are beyond question. Moreover, the doctrine that what is best for the individual child is best also for society suggests that future civilization, as well as contemporary student life, will benefit. After all, schoolboy athletics have been a substitute for adult athletics. It is putting the cart before the horse to characterize adult athletics for adults as a substitute for schoolboy athletics to amuse adults. Finally, municipal playgrounds and private athletic clubs are springing up and growing more popular everywhere. Even smaller communities have their country clubs, golf courses, tennis courts, municipal recreation centers and leaders, all of which are giving healthful entertainment to large numbers who formerly amused themselves by coaching, managing, and cheering the local adolescents at play. Invitation Tournaments In certain states interscholastic athletic associations have been organized to combat, or aided in organizing by the bad consequences of, university-conducted interscholastic tournaments. The latter are planned and administered by college and university athletic authorities for purposes of self-advertising and of attracting athletes to the institution conducting the tournament.8 Each of these tournaments takes pupils out of school routine for from one to five days; they emphasize winning above all else; the champions have their sense of personal values upset by adulation and newspaper accounts; superior athletes are "rushed" by fraternities, and often are pledged to join societies they are not prepared to judge; and prizes for victory increase in intrinsic value annually. This situation (which is common in championships conducted by public schoolmen also) would be not nearly so serious if only one such affair were held each year. But success stimulates emulation, until every college within reach invites high school athletes to attend its tournaments, offering diamond-studded watches if 8 In 1928 a university manager of athletics in an institution which for years had materially aided a state high school athletic organization to conduct its annual track and field championships stated, in a semi-public meeting, "We are not very anxious to assist in any more state tournaments. During the past three years not a single first-place winner in the state meet has entered our university." THE OUTLOOK 6 63 its rival offers merely gold watches as decoys. Consequently, school administrators of the la'st decade were deluged with requests from pupils for permission to attend these meets, and with demands from both school and university alumni to sanction participation therein.9 Nevertheless, an "invitation tournament," when conducted along proper lines, is an event greatly to be desired for high school athletes, who are provided with an entree to collegiate life which many of them will never secure otherwise. They may visit several universities under good chaperonage and friendly guidance to compare the relative merits of different institutions; some will enjoy intimate glimpses of fraternity life; and expenses for these educational trips will be comparatively insignificant. To transform vicious, university- conducted championship events into wholly worthy educational experiences, university authorities should coo*perate with local school authorities in extending invitations. Instead of giving wholesale invitations, each 'institution should invite individual schools, only upon the request of principals, and the higher institutions themselves should take turns in conducting tournaments. Hosts should bend every effort to make the experience worthy of their young guests' time. Above all should attempts of coaches to curtail all sight-seeing, dances and entertainments for the sake of their players' physical condition be checked.10 Finally, the tournaments themselves should be models of good will in sports. Round-robins. which engage the activities of all, all the time, should be substituted for the traditional and antisocial "elimination tournaments" in which half of the players or teams are eliminated from play after a single round. Championships then need not be mentioned by the university authorities," and certainly no medals or loving-cups should be given as prizes to victors. But each school represented may properly be given a plaque; every player should receive a medal or ribbon as a memento of the tournament; and each student body should send letters of 9 h solution provided by many school officers of conducting their own state championship events is 'only a palliative; an emergency move to gain time until other more educationally sound adjustments may be made. 10 If all guests engage in the same activities, none will be unfairly handicapped in competition. 11An ideal example of this type of tournament is provided by the Long Beach (California), high schools, which hold girls' playdays for the schools in and near Long Beach. Scores of the various contests are reported at a centrally located table, but no totals are calculated or announced by anyone officially connected with the management of the playday. A similar plan prevails in most play days held in New York State. 64 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS thanks to those who acted as hosts for the courtesies extended to its athletes. The trend in higher institutions away from emphasis on championships, as revealed in Chart III, indicates, however, that colleges and universities will become less and less eager to conduct tournaments for high school boys. Therefore, the apprehension of many who support state championships as a lesser evil than a multitude of invitation tournaments (that abandonment of the former will mean return of the latter) is to be largely discounted.12 An Attempt at Appraisal "The study of the past begins to inspire us with new hopes for the future of humanity...."13 To think through repays, in sanguine temperaments, the toll of effort expended in reviewing trends, seeking causes, analyzing motives, and testing hypotheses. In the case of interscholastic athletics, educators, parents, and pupils have cause for rejoicing. Nor need spectators or vested interests be greatly concerned over the return to reason of scholastic athletic organizations. Quite evidently educators are solving their problems in the older schools and colleges. Interscholastic championships and centralized control are giving way to wider participation under more wholesome conditions for players who enjoy their games and sports in decentralized, and therefore more natural, organizations. Indeed, the very statement of the only alternative is too forbidding to entertain. Meanwhile an effective substitute to engage the interests of former school sports devotees is being established. Semiprofessional athletics, to say nothing of municipal golf courses and other highly desirable facilities for first-hand instead of secondhand participation in informal athletics, are attracting adults in ever-increasing numbers. In these, most coaches, sports writers, and athletic goods manufacturers and salesmen will find far more lucrative markets for their services and equipment than interschool sports teams now provide. Thus, social and educational forces are being harmonized so neatly and so smoothly that any historian is justified in predicting 12 Hindsight is often useful. If, instead of combating invitation tournaments, by passing restricting rules and conducting their iown affairs, schoolmen had striven to eliminate the bad features of invitation tournaments and strengthen the good ones, the total gains to all might have been great. But it is never too late to adopt new policies. State associations' chief service may well be the accrediting of invitation tournaments. (See Appendix A.) 18 John Caird. THE OUTLOOK 65 66 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS that the present tendency of the leaders in education will be continued-and will be closely followed by all but a few bitter-enders. Chart; IV, page 65, pictures the tendencies, in terms of attitudes. Semi-professional sports and 'informal athletics, in which adults who formerly attended scholastic sports events will participate, are already beginning to attract large numbers of devotees. Chart IV develops the evidence presented in Charts I and II. As indicated in the chart, men as a class are never indifferent toward sports, the modern substitute for medieval and prehistoric physical combat with nature or other men.14 Their concern for scholastic athletics, however, should undergo revision downwards, both for their own and for youth's sake. The Opportunity for Educators While most tests indicate that the future of interscholastic athletics is, from the educator's standpoint, safe, nevertheless much must be done by many individuals to prevent their schools or states from lagging behind the procession. Short-circuiting the natural flow of the current by abolishing all centralized control of athletics, and even banishing all interschool contests would simply be to reject the wisdom gained from five decades of experience. Rather should the evolutionary way to the ideal of "free and natural interschool games, under pupil leadership and control, with adult assistance" be followed. 'The first steps are: (1) the elimination of state and national championship tournaments; (2) decentralization of organization; (3) returning the game to the original owners through curtailment of adult coaching activities during game-time; (4) reduction of costs; (5) nominal admission fees for pupils and parents; (6) the playing of games during weekdays, and in afternoons, rather than evenings; and (7) encouraging superior athletes to participate in part-time paid (semi-professional) sports. These changes should not be difficult to make, especially as successful examples exist in abundance to serve as demonstration laboratories. To these, educational administrators may turn for information on methods and adjustments. Certain state champion14 A similar chart picturing the attitudes of women would show curves confined almost completely below the "interest" area, especially for all but "informal games and sports" in which they themselves participate. For others, women will entertain attitudes suggested by lines confined chiefly below the "indifference" line. This is a normal and proper tendency for women, though of course not for prepubescent girls. THE OUTLOOK 67 ships have already been abolished in California, Florida, West Virginia, and New York. Decentralization exists in most private schools which have no championships of their own, and in many small independent leagues throughout the country. The game has been returned to the original owners in New York, Detroit, Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, Syracuse, Redwood City (California), and elsewhere. Costs are reduced to a minimum in all English schools,15 and attendance at games is free in Montclair, New Jersey, and in certain other towns.'6 As industry cuts its Gordian knots, reduces its "overhead," Simplifies its mechanisms and moves ever more directly toward its goals, so must education eliminate its clumsy, obstructing, and archaic procedures. Refrigeration provides an illuminating example in industry. Ice once stored in winter for summer use, was next made by complicated machinery. But machinery is a mechanical means of transferring energy, which again is a matter of heat transference. By a triumph of modern chemistry and mechanical science, ice is now produced by heat, no machinery intervening. Similarly, educators may eliminate many ponderous gears in interscholastic athletics by an application of the proper procedures directly to local situations and pupils. The cumbersome and dangerous machinery of state athletic leagues, cramping rules, and glory-tournaments is no longer necessary. Machinery is noisy, troublesome, and highly dangerous; every gear-covering in human life is itself dynamic and *theref ore only multiplies the dangers. The essentials in interscholastic athletics are boys who desire to play, knowledge of games, facilities for play, methods of bringing teams together, methods of equalizing team abilities, and fair play, including honesty, courtesy, and justice. Some of these involve problems for teachers to solve in curricular activities, others are functions of local or district athletic associations. '1 See Games and ~Sports in British Schools and Universities, by Howard J. Savage, Bulletin 18, Carnegie Foundation, 1927. -16 See The Administration and Cost of High School Interscholastic Athletics, by L. H. wagenhorst, iChapter IV. Teachers College, Columbia University. PART II THE FUNCTIONS OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC ASSOCIATIONS CHAPTER VII GENERAL FUNCTIONS OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC ASSOCIATIONS Are Interschool Sports Educational? Interscholastic athletics either do or do, not affect behavior. If they do not, then educators have no responsibility for their proper supervision any more than they have for the conduct of a wild elephant in Darkest Africa. But if, interscholastic athletics do affect the health and social behavior of school children then school administrators must take appropriate measures to insure the best possible consequences of such activities. There is no middle ground of neutrality for the competent educator. President W. H. P. Faunce of Brown University puts the case for faculty interest in studentinitiated activities tersely: Why should our popular phrase "student activities" always connote something outside the curriculum? Are studies only "passivities"? Every student activity should either be cordially welcomed by the Faculty and correlated with the curriculum, or should be abolished altogether as a distraction and an impertinence. Four outstanding reasons for faculty encouragement of interscholastic athletics should be universally endorsed. First, games and sports are rapidly becoming an outstanding characteristic of American culture. They are followed by millions of adults, who either play themselves or, as spectators, indulge vicariously in basketball and hockey, football and baseball games and boxing bouts in ever-increasing numbers. As leisure time increases, too, more and more men and women will engage in athletic activities. It is the task of education to prepare young people properly to engage in the most recreative and social games and sports. Interscholastic athletics, when conducted according to. sound educational principles, will contribute much to the training of children for effective adult leisure-time activities Second, in every school there must be some superior athletes in 71 72 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS every sport who cannot find competition on their own level in their own community, and therefore interests in their specialties will languish unless they find opponents worthy of their mettle. Intersehool contests which provide super-athletes with worthy competition are natural and proper outcomes, for some pupils, of those intramural games and sports which provide present recrealtive activities and future leisure-time habits and interests for all. SThird, interscholastic athletics provide splendid opportunities for broadening the social horizons of school children. In spite of the most effective transportation facilities the world has yet seen, which have greatly- broadened their geographical horizons, Americans remain appallingly insular in their concepts of and attitudes toward people who do otherwise than themselves. In the past, however, the undoubtedly great opportunities for social and general cultural training which interschool sports present have been sadly neglected. The whole aim has been to humiliate rival schools rather than to meet and understand them. But with new ideals of equality between teams (games for the sake of the pleasure to be had from them) and with the elimination of championships which force opponents apart socially and psychically as they bring them together physically, interschool sports events provide splendid opportunities for the reduction of self-centered local pride, shortsighted local ambitions and provincial culture. Fourth, of all student activities, interscholastic athletics are among the most potent educational procedures, because they enlist children's intense interests, arouse their deepest emotions and lead to physically violent and emotionally complex behavior. Under such circumstances results in terms of physical health and modified behavior are both widespread and deeply implanted. Lessons in cooperation, loyalty, fair play, self-reliance and perseverance learned but imperfectly in academic work and even in intramural sports may be clinched forever in interschool sports. The techniques of games will be more thoroughly learned; younger players will be provided with good examples of skill, courage, strategy, and teamplay to emulate, while the most skilful will become completely self-directing, courageous, and self-confident in forms of living which must profoundly affect their characters. Nor should educators fear the bugaboo of the "transfer of training fallacy" at this juncture. Leading psychologists to-day are insisting that attitudes, emotional patterns, and even intellectual GENERAL FUNCTIONS 73 concepts may be generalized and "carry over." What is learned in classrooms and on the athletic field is bound to determine, to a large extent, future conduct-else there would be no value in school life at all. Identical elements in abundance are not far to seek. Any teacher, principal, or superintendent who ignores athletics, or who indiscriminately discourages his pupils from experiencing this phase of scholastic life in favor 6f the academic, neglects many of the most promising opportunities which school life provides for furthering educational aims, especially in the physical and social fields. Interschool games and sports should be sympathetically endorsed and wisely aided by each individual educational administrator and teacher who has at heart the best interests of his or her pupils, for interschool athletics are educational, and in the best sense of the term, too. The Nature and Purposes of Interscholastic Athletic Associations Interscholastic athletic associations provide ready-made agencies for aiding and guiding schoolboy games and sports. Before school administrators take other steps to assist pupils in their interschool contacts, the nature and functions of existing associations should be understood. An athletic association is a legal or quasi-legal personality, whose chief raisons d'e~tre are the convenience and satisfactions of its constituent parts, and as a personality whose functions are intimately related to real persons, the athletic association should function like unto a completely altruistic host with relation to guests whom he has brought together for their benefit. In truth, practically every problem concerning interscholastic athletic associations may be solved by using social practice in host's and guest's private life as the criterion. If the procedure under examination would be good form at a banquet, or in planning and conducting a large houseparty, it is likely that it would be proper in an athletic association. It will be seen that the errors committed by scholastic athletic association officials are legion; it will be apparent, too, that had the erring officials scrutinized their plans and procedures in the light of the "host and guests" concept, most of them would have been avoided. The primary purpose motivating the organization of most scholas 74 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS tic athletic associations is mutual convenience.' Teams had been organized within individual schools, arrangements had been made to play games with teams from neighboring schools, and games were played. But soon three sources of embarrassment appeared. The first embarrassment arose from difficulties in scheduling games due to "previous engagements" of desired opponents. The second embarrassment came from the use of players who did not properly represent the schools on whose teams they played. The third embarrassment came from problems concerning relative abilities: questions arose as to which team in the district or state was supreme. At this juncture the American genius for organization asserted itself. To protect their individual freedom of action others might have continued to muddle through, but American schoolmen have almost universally sunk their athletic differences in agreements enforced by their own associations. Thus, solutions of all three problems were effected by "league" actions. Playing schedules for all were made by committees-to avoid conflicting engagements-and each team was thereby guaranteed one or more games with every other team in the league. Qualifications for membership on teams were drawn up, carefully defined, and administered by league officials-thus eliminating the impostors, or at least reducing the chances for outsiders safely to play against bona fide schoolboys. Finally, it became possible to determine championships, either by league tournaments, as in track and field events, basketball, swimming, tennis, and like sports; or by mathematical calculations, when each team met every other team an equal number of times, but when time was lacking for an elimination tournament, as in football, and in leagues having a large number of teams. But the zeal of organizers eventually betrays even the simplest program, if it is not checked constantly. Thus, leagues formed for the purpose of arranging games between and determining championships for their members sometimes become nuisances, both to their own organizers and to all in the immediate vicinity. For example, the desire of organizers to give their championship titles more validity has led many interscholastic athletic associations to 1 The immediate purposes of athletic associations are obvious. Like most other social institutions the interschool sports varieties come into being in response to definite felt needs on the part of the organizers. And again like other human institutions they often outlive the needs they formerly served; sometimes they function to destroy what they were organized to protect; and almost always their stated purposes are rationalized, rather than real. - GENERAL FUNCTIONS 75 force every school to join the local organization or be publicly embarrassed for failure to submit to coercion. Then, having coerced many unwilling teams into the league, each team is forced to play.games with every other team in the league, regardless of mutual desires. The first reason for organization (convenience in scheduling games between teams which desire to play together) is now controverted. To determine which team is the champion, the weakest team in the association is required to play the strongest team, thus controverting that primary principle of fair play held by players everywhere, and almost instinctively: equality between competitors. This procedure is often so common that it has ceased to excite comment. Indeed, it is accepted so universally that school administrators who intelligently and courageously refuse to permit their obviously weaker teams to play against stronger teams are often branded "cowards" rather than complimented for their sound judgment. Even worse than failure to veto contests with stronger teams is the failure of many large-school administrators to avoid games between their teams and those from very much smaller schools. But often league rules, and the traditions established by athletic associations, render such wholly proper actions almost impossible. Finally, the championship often is awarded on the basis of all games played, when it may be obvious that a team which lost its early season games was, at the close of the season, far superior to the crowned champions, and should have received the award. Hence, the association often fails tQ satisfy anybody concerning the identity of the true champions, and the third reason for organizing is betrayed. Probably the association has set up several "ideal" purposes, too, which may be (and often are) quite at variance with the mutual conveniences for which the organization came into being. This procedure is so typical of American organizations that it is the general rule. Nevertheless, such ideal purposes are embraced with all the ardor of hope. Thus, the second object of athletic associations is to guarantee that players will be true members of the schools they represent. But eventually they become "organizations for the promotion of fair play and good sportsmanship." Now, the chief effect of eligibility rules (which are supposed.vo serve the purpose of guaranteeing bona fide membership) 76 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS is to handicap unfairly smaller schools whenever their teams play those from larger schools, although the essence of fair play involves approximate equality between competitors. The development of courtesy is usually included in the ideal purposes to which all scholastic athletic associations cling. Courtesy is violated whenever one team "protests" a game and seeks to win a' championship by means of a forfeit rather than by superior playing, yet it becomes, the duty of both the officials and the aggrieved team to call attention to violations. of rules which are formulated and administered by leagues. Finally, fair play and good sportsmanship on the one hand and championships on the other hand are mutually repelling objectives; yet scholastic athletic associations place them side by side in statements of objectives or purposes, and attempt to reconcile them in practice. In spite of these objections, athletic associations may be of great benefit both to players and to school administrators. There is urgent need, however, for critical analyses of their proper functions, and careful investigations of the effects of every policy they embrace and every procedure they administer. CHAPTER VIII PRIMARY FUNCTIONS OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC ASSOCIATIONS Four Primary Functions Interscholastic athletic associations have four primary functions; they provide answers to the following questions: "What games shall be played?" "Who shall play whom?" "When shall the games be played?" and "Where shall contests be held?" Other functions are subsidiary to, or elaborations of, the four primary functions. Athletic associations which please their members in the provision of places and times for games, and which bring players together in the largest number of* happy athletic encounters are simply justifying their existence. On the other hand, any athletic association which relinquishes its power of arranging playing schedules has lost its chief reason for existence, while any which fails to increase the number of contacts between and pleasure in the games played by its member schools ought to be surveyed and reor.ganized. Interscholastic athletic associations have spent less time and thought on the first two functions named above than on the last two. The times and places of contests must be determined, but what games shall be played, and the propriety of matching the various teams or schools in any given association have been taken more for granted. What Activities Should Be Recognized? Concerning the first question-"jWhat games shall be played?"secondary school athletic associations have been content to follow the lead of colleges and universities, concentrating on the sports featured by the higher institutions and dropping or ignoring the activities they neglect. If a new sport gains favor in higher institutions it is soon carried down to the lower schools, as has happened with football, track and field sports, basketball, and now water 77 78 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS sports and even golf. Conversely, if a formerly popular sport loses favor in college it languishes in high school, a fate which has overtaken baseball.1 It is doubtful whether an athletic association should ever use its schedule-making powers to introduce a new form of sport to its members. Such a policy is much like that of the dead hand in wills or absentee ownership of property. Athletic associations could too easily establish an intrinsically worthless or harmful sport as a local social custom, which ought not (for the happiness and welfare of the players) to survive, just as a hospital staff might (for its own amusement or profit) bring into a community a colony of lepers, and expose the inhabitants thereof to the new danger (while protecting all from the direct effects through its medical services), finally establishing a growing society of lepers where formerly health and a normal life existed. Rather should athletic association officers act as hosts in charge of other forms of social activity do-investigate the existing habits and interests of their constituencies, and respond to their real, though sometimes voiceless, desires. A host at a house party would hardly conceive it his duty to require his guests to engage in activities they were not interested in. Likewise soccer football, for example, may be an excellent sport, but if it is not being played -if school teams are not in existence and eager to meet teams from other schools-it is highly problematical whether athletic associations are justified in using their powers to promote the game. On the other hand, if some schools do play soccer football while others do not, it is proper for the association to aid those interested to arrange games among themselves and bring the opportunity to the attention of the others. Many scholastic athletic association officials use their schedulemaking powers to induce pupil athletes to engage in sports which have lost their appeal. Such a procedure is of doubtful value. Thus, if track and field sports seem to be languishing, it is probably best for the association to let them die out rather than at1 It is neither a primary nor a secondary function of athletic associations to become evangelists or physicians whose mission it is to introduce new sports into society, or to resuscitate dying ones. But those who administer the affairs of these associations should remember that playing schedules are the breath of life for interschool sports in communities where associations exist, and that neglect of any activity by the schedule-making powers is a positive handicap to its growth. Indeed, to the extent that interschool sports associations- are effective in dominating scholastic athletics they control the destinies of the play culture of their geographical and social neighborhoods. PRIMARY FUNCTIONS 7 79 tempt to revive them. Certainly the association (a servant of local units, not a master) ought not to oppose its will to the judgment of local units who have rejected or desire to reject any type of sport. In choosing types of games and sports which their organization shall foster, athletic association officials ought to limit themselves in two ways: first, by scheduling contests only in games and sports already played locally; and second, by refusing to schedule any activiti'es which threaten the physical or social welfare of participants. The first- limitation merely reduces to a formula the principle discussed in the last few paragraphs. The second limitation might seem an unnecessary statement of an obvious responsibility. Nevertheless, the statement is needed, for although it should be a cardinal principle of scholastic athletic associations and especially of public, school organizations, the fact is that responsibility for protecting the health of athletes has often been ignored. This is proved by the almost universal inclusion of many "events" favored by athletic associations; activities which abound in dangers to the physical welfare of players. The mile run is a good example of an activity which is almost universally incorporated in track meets but which should be eliminated for secondary school boys at least. No host would set before his guests a banquet several courses of which would harm them. Neither should an athletic association - schedule any events more likely to harm athletes than to help them.2 Who Should Play Whom? The most felicitous matching of opponents offers almost unlimited opportunities for the im~provement of interschool sports affairs. Association officials, acting as hosts at the athletic banquet table, should regard the seatiing of their guests as a supremely important function, just as do hosts at other social affairs. At a dinner, especially if it be a large one, it is not nearly so important that the "right people" be invited, as that congenial persons be seated togetherý-those with similar intellectual tastes and at least approximately equal linguistic powers. 2 Most athletic associationý are active in protecting athletes from the more obvious dangers, and are willing to go further when shown the need. It is urged here that they should lead in discovering these needs. This subject is developed further in Chapter IX. 80 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS Likewise, athletic association officials may accept the membership of almost any school or team if it be, morally sound, but they should remain dissatisfied with anything less than the most painstaking pairing of teams for actual contests. In every case the opposing teams should desire the engagement; the time and place of meeting should be mutually acceptable; the type of game and the rules should please both teams; and the, playing powers of the opponents should be as nearly equal as is practicably possible. Of these, the fourth specification is least considered to-day, and therefore will be discussed here.3 Any association which fosters athletics for the enjoyment of the players but which takes no steps to equalize the playing powers of competitors will soon disintegrate, for the very cornerstone of enjoyment in athletic activity is the exercise of one's highest and best efforts, against an opponent worthy and able to meet one's challenges. In such games as golf, billiards, shooting, diving, high jumping, and the like, players may compete against themselves or against handicapped opponents; but in the more social games, as tennis, baseball, football, and basketball, opponents will soon function as discouragements. if their abilities far surpass or lag behind those of the players. Scholastic athletic associations might be considered to be active in this phase of their work, for a very great proportion of the time and energy in their business meetings is taken up with "eligibility rules" and protests arising therefrom. (Eligibility rules have been most associations' only means of equalizing the powers of competing teams.) Nevertheless, equality is seldom sought as the goal. Most eligibility rules are drawn up and administered to prevent "opponents" from gaining great superiority of playing powers. But they serve to equalize abilities only by preventing interested parties from hiring grown men or full teams of star athletes recruited from any source to play on local teams-that is, they merely render inconvenient the creation of gross inequalities between competitors. However, but few informed persons now entertain the belief or hope that they perform even this weak function with any great success.4 The reader may wonder why scholastic and other athletic associations have survived, since "equality" is so poorly pro3 This fourth adjustment is essential also to meet the sportsmanship criterion, "fair play." See F. R. Rogers, The Amateur Spirit in Scholastic Games and Sports, Chapter VI. 4'Eligibility rules are a peculiar phenomenon whose very right to existence is challenged in Chapter X. PRIMARY FUNCTIONS 8 81 vided for. The answer is that the association and the member schools have not been concerned with enjoyment of the game by players, but they have been concerned with determining victors and champions. Their success, therefore, is that of lotteries, rather than of associations for the convenience, amusement, and welfare of schoolboy athletes. It is highly significant, then, as marking the advent of a new point of view among those who control scholastic games and sports, that more and more associations are actively engaged in attempts to equalize the playing powers of competitors. Weight classes (teams composed of players below given weights) is a definite, positive, and fairly accurate means of eliminating the gross inequalities between competing schools.5 The division of leagues into classes of schools based on enrollment, as Class A and Class B schools, is one way of avoiding at least grossly unfair and uninteresting competition. Michigan, for example, uses this method quite extensively. Certain leagues in California use an "exponent" system, based on age, height, weight, and grade combined into a single score which may be better than a weight score alone; while certain schools in New York use the Strength Index method which is about twice as accurate as the "exponent" and weight systems." The particular method used for equalizing the powers of competing teams is of little consequence, however, compared to an active policy on the, part of association officials of insuring that games scheduled shall be between teams equal in abilities. The failure of most scholastic athletic associations to see the need of approximate equality between teams is. due to several causes, among which the astigmatizing effects of desire for victory is one-desire for victory on the part of those who join the association and follow its unsatisfactory game assignments. Another reason may be the belief on the part of association officials that the determination of the "champion" is one of the functions of their organizations, 'if not the function. Besides insuring that opponents are equal in abilities it is important that games scheduled by athletic associations be wanted by all parties concerned. Again using the analogy of the host and guests, no thoughtful host would insist that his potential guest 5 See F. R. Rogers, Tests and Measurement Programs in the Redirection o 'f Physical Eduecation, for proper method of using weight as a measure of athletio ability. 6 Op. cit., Part I and especially Chapter VI. 82 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS X eat, drink, or play with his guest Y. He may invite, but he goes no further than the courteous offer. Likewise, athletic associations should guard against any tendency to enforce their invitations (schedules) on any individual school or team. If X prefers not to play Y, certainly X's wishes should be respected. Such incidents may occur frequently, and should excite no adverse comment. That X does not care to play should be sufficient for all concerned. The high-handed actions of some league officials who insist that games must be played, and according to schedule "lor the school in question will be suspended" is a perversion of their powers; an assumption of authority which ought to be rejected by good sportsmen.7 One of the greatest wrongs which scholastic athletic associations commit is forcing games to be played between schools whose players are, for the time being, unwelcome to each other. Yet this is a common occurrence to-day in America.8 Even within a city league it often happens that two student bodies become estranged. The fault may lie with neither, or the blame may rest unevenly, but in either case social relationships are strained. Forcing their athletic representatives. together in a competitive encounter is often the most effective way of increasing the animosity between them. It is idle, in such cases, academically to recount the possible effectiveness of athletics for dissolving enmities. The athletic association, like the mutual friend, May offer to bring the two together but should not follow its courteous gesture by any form of coercion, any more often than a host would insist that political opponents, or plaintiff and defendant in a law suit, or the present wife and the former one of the same man should sit together at a banquet. Some good might come from such a juxtaposition of opposing natures, but ýthe moral gain is too problematical to justify a third party in insisting on it. Time usually heals these breaches with a thoroughness one can only wonder at. When Should Games Be Played? This problem is solved satisfactorily in most instances. The interests and wishes of participants are consulted, and are complied 7 It is entirely proper for an association to discriminate against any school which continually rejects its schedules, just as a host may strike any name from his list-even though the affair he semi-official and the name be ever so "eligible." 8 The action of Superintendent Moon of Poughkeepsie, New York, who temporarily withdrew his high school from membership in an athletic league which continued (according to precedent) to schedule games between schools who were socially at odds, ifs greatly to be commended. PRIMARY FUNCTIONS 83 with whenever possible. Dates and hours may be changed by the parties affected, and sometimes are even selected by players themselves. In this phase of their work, interscholastic athletic associations may assist most effectively by drawing up complete schedules and submitting them to individual member schools for ratification. This is done to some extent already; it is the true conference plan. The only advance step needed is that of permitting any number of modifications in the time schedule by any member school. Since it is apparent that one change by one school might upset the entire schedule, but few members will ever seek to change, except for the most urgent reasons. Again the analogy of host and guests will serve. As the host invites guests to his house on a fixed date (after determining one which is most convenient for all) and then accepts the regrets of those who cannot or do not care to attend, so should the association or league select dates and hours for its functions. But its functions are those which it conducts, as circuses, tournaments, conference track meets, play days, swimming meets, and banquets, to which all members of the association are invited. However, contests between any two member schools are not association affairs and should always, in the last analysis, be left to the wishes of the two parties involved. Where Should Games Be Played? Whenever possible, athletic associations should aid schools to play games at home. Again referring to other types of social functions, the host is the most complete host only when he entertains in his own home. It is so also in athletic affairs. The use of substitute facilities is a tacit announcement that the host cannot meet the situation in his own home. If the game is played in a borrowed stadium to accommodate unusual crowds the inference always is that the host has exceeded his station in society; that he is making more of the affair than should be sanctioned either by its intrinsic merits or by his habits.9 The custom of playing on neutral courts must be condemned. ' Home teams which possess no accommodation of their own may properly entertain in rented spaces, as individuals who have no homes may rent dining rooms and dance floors. However, students in schools which hire stadiums to exhibit their athletic teams are provided with an example of bad manners and are not to be criticised for preferring to dance in hired halls rather than in their own homes or school halls. If schools are to prescribe rules they must set good examples-and generalize both the examples and the rules to include all similar functions. 84 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS It is born of an indefensible desire to humiliate one's playmates and has no place in a scholastic program. True enough, it is a gesture in the direction of equality, but so is the gesture "Choose the weapons, sir!" and both are proposed in the same manner. 'The neutral court is useful only to settle a dispute; but scholastic athletic associations ought not to concern themselves with disputes, except to dissolve them. Disputes between individualsattempts to determine "who is the better of the two"'-have no better reputation in athletic associations than in banquet halls. The place for an association tournament usually is wherever the largest number of individuals (and member schools) can be accommodated with the greatest pleasure to all. A geographically central location is only one item in the problem. Others include amount of space and equipment available, quality of equipment and condition of grounds, and the character of the local community service. Of these, the last is greatest. If local parents, city officials, and commercial interests are eager to entertain, athletic association affairs will succeed even if space is confined and distances to be traveled are great. Association officers. may do much to insure the outward success of entertainments which involve large numbers of people, but the assistance provided by unofficial local helpers may make or ruin the day. Limits of Adult Control The ideal interscholastic athletic league is directed and controlled by student athletes-those who are most intimately affected by the proceedings of league officials. But even such an ideal. organization needs the assistance of adults who should advise student officers concerning positive programs and possibly veto unwise programs or rules, for the sake of the pupil players, the student bodies involved, and for the sake of the integrity of the schools and com.munities, affected.10 But whenever school authorities exercise protective control over interscholastic athletics and whenever school time,1' school facilities, and school monies are expended in the interests of interschool sports, educational objectives must underlie and guide the policies of those who administer association affairs. Educational objectives go far beyond "health protection" and 10 An athletic association constitution embodying these features is contained in the Appendix. See also Chapters X1 and XII of this volume. "11Schoof officials controlling interscholastic athletics almost invariably use school time to carry on their siffairs. Officials give much of their own time also to this service. PRIMARY FUNCTIONS 85 "enjoyment." Interschool sports should also increase knowledge, skill, and interest in the most useful games and sports, and develop such social and intellectual traits as sympathy, cooperation in all its aspects, fair play including honesty, courtesy, justice, loyalty, and appreciations. Doubtless the reader will discover a possible conflict at this point. On the one hand it has been stated that associations should not use their powers to introduce new (though desirable) sports or to preserve dying ones; on the other hand it is suggested that interschool sports may serve as educational agencies. The fact is that there is a real conflict, which must be thoroughly understood before it is possible to meet the situation properly. The problem is too involved for easy solution and too important to be dismissed with a word. A mere statement of it is all which may safely be given here. In brief, the problem is: How far should adults who aid pupils acting as interscholastic athletic association officials go in modifying natural (pupil-controlled) trends in order to render interschool sports most productive educationally? At this time only three policies can be stated with assurance. First, adults should do nothing which will reduce materially the participation of players in intrinsically worth-while activities. For example, no matter how desirable it mayseem, it is doubtful whether adults should refuse to permit associations to schedule games in American football simply because this sport may be less educational and insist on soccer football, because soccer is more educational, or vice versa. Second, adults should never take actual control away from pupils. Thus, scholastic athletic leagues should be officered and administered by pupils. Adults may properly veto, but ought never to take things into their own hands-that is, they should not manage interschool sports for pupils, as is done almost universally to-day. The scholastic league controlled entirely by adults is an adult activity. When pupils fail to conduct their own social affairs properly, such affairs may be curtailed by school authorities, but never run by them, except as curricular activities (see Chapters XI and XII). Third, no program should be fostered which is obviously educational or moral in nature. For example, essay contests on fair play, prizes for the most sportsmanlike athlete, banners for the 86 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS best local intramural program, and the like, should be taboo. They always tend to destroy the very qualities sought for, and they tend also to reduce healthy pupil-projected games and sports to tools for obtaining personal privilege and prestige. No host of character and culture would think of reducing a healthy, happy-entertainment to such a level. Athletic associations must beware of the evils which accompany such programs. Pupils will seldom think of them unless stimulated to do so by some adult with a vested interest to serve or a pedagogically unsound objective to pursue. Nevertheless, pupil officials should be aided 12 and may be guided in perceiving and embracing every legitimate opportunity which athletics afford for improving pupils' health and character, just as a host at a banquet may hope to send his guests home healthier and more considerate of others than when they came to his board. In both cases the key should be: bring about growth without its being suspected by guests or players. The foregoing discussion elaborates the proper relationships between the athletic association and its members. It should act as a host, a master of ceremonies, or a committee on entertainment. This defines in brief almost its whole function. It may draw up and interpret rules, but these should never become so severe that they coerce members either to attend the party or to suffer more than loss of participation in the entertainment if they fail to do so. Athletic associations ought always to be officered and administered by players, or, at the very least, by representatives of players. In interscholastic athletic associations adults should sit with pupil representatives and hold veto powers, but adults ought almost never to assume active control. The process of uniting almost inevitably results in loss of some of the virtues of independent action. Individuals within any political organization suffer these losses, and states within federations of states suffer similar restrictions. It must be so also with social organizations. But social organizations should sacrifice almost everything else before embracing any policy which threatens the freedom and joy of individuals engaged in the social activity the association sponsors, for such a policy would be a blow at the primary objective of its existence. Likewise, athletic associations should regard any ill-feeling or curtailment of athletic events among member schools as a major failure of the association. 12 See the discussion in Chapter XII. CHAPTER IX SECONDARY FUNCTIONS OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC ASSOCIATIONS Health Protection As the host who invites friends to his banquet should insure their comfort and pleasure, so must athletic associations who schedule athletic events for members schools protect the health and insure the comfort and pleasure of invited guests. Responsibilities may be delegated-the host may hold his caterer or cook responsible for the purity of food; the athletic association may hold member schools responsible for providing medical service at all contests held on their home ground. But athletic association officials ought never to assume that their functions are performed by others. This i S a first law (unwritten but universal) not only in private affairs, but also in public, though it is only recently that health protection has ýbeen recognized as a public responsibility. Of public organizations schools have been among the last to assume responsibility for the health of those whose lives they control.' It should not be surprising, therefore, to learn that public school athletic associations have given but scant attention to health measures. Nevertheless, the activities they administer are probably the most hazardous of any which most schools endorse or permit. How far association officials may properly go toward protecting players' physical health cannot be stated with any assurance, for there is so little experience from which to draw conclusions.' The rules given here are no more than suggestions or clues.,It should be remembered that every physical activity in life is dangerous in some degree and that, while the least dangerous athletic activity is more hazardous than almost any other type of recreative activity, athletics contribute so much to vitality that some hazards are worth the gamble, both for the physical ad' 5tate laws compelling attendance at school date from 1852 (Massachusetts). The first state medical inspection law was passed in 1916 (New:York). 87 88 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS vantages which will accrue and also for the development of social personality which they nurture. Endurance Tests as Health Hazards In general, any human activity which apparently strains physical resources to the point of exhaustion as a normal consequence of indulgence therein should be condemned. The best example of such activities in the realm of athletics are foot races of more than a mile, and rowing races of more than two miles in length. Most medical authorities will question the propriety of even these. Certainly the mile run may be questioned for college men and the half-mile run for high school boys.2 School authorities who are sincerely concerned for the physical welfare of their pupils should not wait for scientific confirmation of the obvious. Their own experience must show them that the longer races, when run in keen competition, are dangerous; that such events test the growing child too near his "breaking strain." Moreover, endurance races have no other unique value than to reveal the limits of endurance; that is, they are essentially instruments of minor torture. Speed, skill, stamina, courage, fair playall these may be tested at shorter distances.3 Slowing-down due to fatigue occurs in the 100-yard dash, even among highly-trained sprinters. In the 220-yard dash it is quite marked. Chart V indicates clearly the fact that the 220-yard dash involves endurance, and necessitates judgment of pace on the part of the runner. Long distance races and, indeed, all sports which are essentially endurance contests, have no place in interscholastic athletics. A corollary of the principle that essentially endurance contests should be taboo is the rule that no game should be continued to the point where it does become such a contest. Basketball, for example, is primarily a test of strength, skill, cooperation, and strategy. The element of endurance should enter too, but only as one element. Sixty-minute halves would reduce all other elements to a minor place. Therefore, in all sports the endurance element should be investigated and limits should be set which will prevent any sport from degenerating into a test of physical fitness. 2 Most spectators regard the quarter-mile as most devitalizing. But if each race is run in the same way (so as to use all the runner's powers before the finish is reached) obviously the longer the race, the more vitality it will consume. SThe findings of G. M. (Butler reported in his Modern Athletics (Macmillan), Chapter V, are very significant. SECONDARY FUNCTIONS 89 "- 35 3b zo mph /I 30 "" "',. "* 23-2 8ees. furl/ong / 2 5. \. 25 sees. furlong " 5'mph. " pace well jMuged. j' * 28-5.8ecq. furlong 20- t" -20 fp 25-9 [25secs. man 10 /mph pace adly judged 1Q0- ^ -10, 5mph. 0 50 100 150 200 220yards Fig. 26 Table of the times at the intermediate stages, in seconds These times will not of course necessarily apply -to all runners. 5 0 00 J50 200 220 They are based on the following assumptions. The first stage of 50 is ---- - -- the slowest, when speed is being 7.0 12-6 I8-6 25-4 28 picked up. The second stage between 50 and zoo is the fastest. 6-8 12"2 I18o 24*4 27 Thereafter there is adecline in speed 6*6 I 1*8 17.*4 23-5 26 till the finish as the runner tires. 63 4 16.8 226 25 On the graph is plotted the speed 63 I*4 i6-8 226 25 in feet per second of the 23-second, 6-1 I10o 16-2 21-8 24 the 25-second, the 28-5-second 5.7 io-6 15-4 20-8 23 running and also that of a runner who could, if he had judged his pace.. correctly, have.done 25 sec. As it was, his speed fell off badly at the end of the race because he had made the pace too hot for himself over the first too yards. Note the quick decline in speed as compared with the other three, whose performances were better balanced, i.e. they left enough energy for their final effort. From G. M. Butler, Modern Athletics, 1929 The Macmillan Company, New York CHART V 90 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS Basketball now seems quite admirably adjusted to the endurance of most well-developed players. Four eight-minute quarters appear sufficient to provide the best-trained secondary school players with a complete test (which includes endurance) without undue strain. Baseball, under normal conditions, probably involves no strain which cannot be borne safely. American football, as played to-day, seems not to test severely the endurance of most players in good form. The distance swimming races, however, should be questioned. Three sets of tennis are sufficient to test fully the abilities of most high school players. These and other conjectures ought to be confirmed or rejected by scientific investigation. Accident Hazards as Health Hazards Hazards to life and limb present a most difficult problem. Thus the opinion is growing in some quarters that American football takes too great a physical toll to justify its unquestioned social value. But the game itself is changing rapidly; the dangers may soon be lessened to the point where all but the most sensitive will agree that its advantages outweigh its disadvantages. The following points are suggested as guides to the formulation of general principles. During games of any kind players should enjoy the benefits of protective measures. Clothing, safety pads, and guards should be adequate. Really dangerous events, like the javelin and discus throws and pole vault should be supervised as carefully as rifle clubs supervise their ranges. Referees and other officials should be trained to recognize signs of exhaustion; they should be alert to protect the players' health, and should exercise the power (they always have had it) of removing from the game any player who, in their belief, would be unduly strained by continued playing. Physicians should be in attendance at all contests where their services are likely to be needed, and they, too, should have the power to remove players. Whether the athletic association should supervise these details, pass rules for the guidance of local authorities conducting games, or simply delegate to the latter full responsibility, is a matter for debate, experiment, and local option. Local educational authorities should be alert for their own sakes; probably the best solution is that associations should delegate health protective functions to those immediately in charge of events. SECONDARY FUNCTIONS 91 When the association itself entertains at a general meet, its officials should provide an ideal example of vigilance in protecting health. Emotional Overstimulation as a Health Hazard Most physical and mental strains and hazards in life depend to a very great degree on intensity of activity. Football, for example, may be played outdoors without appreciable harm to high school boys clad in ordinary gymnasium costumes;4 or it may result in broken bones and even death to the best-trained and equipped adult. Likewise, warfare between armies may result either in the most devastating human disaster or in practically no bones broken (Central American warfare). On the other hand, card games sometimes leave bullet wounds and broken heads in their wake. It is apparent that the type of activity is not nearly so significant in determining physical hazards as are the attitudes of the players. Thus, in a world ruled by emotions intense bitterness leads to physical violence, and in a selfish society the offer of a precious prize leads to supreme sacrifices. These observations lead naturally to the conclusion that any procedure which stirs unnatural emotions or stimulates overweening ambitions or awakens cupidity is dangerous to the health of those aroused-and is increasingly dangerous in those activities which are naturally more hazardous. A rule which ought to be adhered to by athletic associations, then, is to disapprove of and discourage any procedure which rouses unnatural emotions or stimulates overweening ambitions. Moreover, scholastic athletic associations should exert their influence to prevent any individuals or civic or other organizations from over-stimulating players thus.5 The host at his dinner need offer no prize other than tempting food to induce his guests to eat. Similarly, healthy young athletes need no stimulation beyond the provision of halfway decent facilities and fair opponents to force them into action. He who offers a prize of any sort for victory, who conducts "pep" meetings to rouse players to unnatural excitement, who figuratively "waves the flag," The writer has witnessed such contests regularly scheduled and played between gymnasium class squads-with interference, tackling, blocking, etc. 5 It is necessary to point out that any artificial stimulation is likely to be unnatural and disastrous. Human beings possess millions of sensory nerve endings, each one of which is ready to respond to natural stimulation and, in healthy persons, is eager to be stimulated. 92 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS or who arranges for grudge matches simply drops an apple of discord into the situation; he who offers the most valuable prizes simply intensifies the danger to life and limb of all connected with the game. Of course the most valued prizes are not material ones. Reputation is of more worth than money, and so the greater the fame the greater the striving and the greater the danger to health. For this reason alone, national and state championships in athletics for growing boys are to be condemned unreservedly. Any experienced athlete or athletic association official can (and will, if in a candid mood) recall instance after instance of players who have paid in physical constitutions permanently weakened or deformed for casts of their dice for glory. The implications may be argued indefinitely; but the point that interscholastic athletic associations always increase the danger to physical health of participants by offering prizes for victory or otherwise intensifying public concern over contests, will not be questioned. Since honors, prizes, and other extrinsic incentives are quite unnecessary to stimulate a normal and desirable amount of athletic activity, among young athletes, and since competing for them does involve unnecessary hazards to health, they should be rejected almost universally. If joy in playing the game, and pride in matching skills and wits with opponents, are not sufficient to stimulate players to meet, then the game were better not played at all by schoolboys during their leisure time. Provision of Facilities "Facilities" include all elements which facilitate the playing of the game by players: space, including grounds, courts, swimming pools; paraphernalia, such as balls, bats, bases, goals, baskets, gloves, poles, jumping standards; and personnel, including janitors, groundkeepers, referees, clerks, or messengers, timekeepers, police (to prevent outsiders from 'Interfering) and, if necessary, physicians. Athletic associations should delegate to others responsibility for providing facilities; in fact this is the only way adequately to care for most of the details connected with the conduct of match games. On the other hand, association officials, even as absent hosts, should assure themselves that facilities are adequate in order that players may not be embarrassed or obstructed in their game. SECONDARY FUNCTIONS 93 As a rule, then, association officials should delegate all duties which local officials perform satisfactorily, and should themselves perform such functions as local officials show themselves unable to perform. For example, if local officials cannot provide medical services at football games, the association should do so. If local fields are inadequate the association may aid in the discovery and choice of others, and so on.6 An important "facilities service" usually provided by association officials is that of selecting and assigning referees. Where local rivalries are keen it is often difficult to find game officials acceptable to both sides. Under such circumstances the association performs yeoman service in assuming the burden. It is often helpful for the same committee which arranges the playing schedule to assign referees, and to determine their fees. However, it is unfortunate that the necessity exists for great care in the selection of officials, as it indicates an unhealthy state of affairs which ought to be changed as speedily as possible. The ideal officials for interscholastic contests are former players from the schools whose teams are competing. Ideals are remote objectives, however, and may never be reached by the average individual and school. Certainly the integrity of the game itself (which is a higher goal) should not be sacrificed to the ideal of graduate players as officials. At all events, competent and impartial officials must be provided. The nearer home they live and have their work and play, the better. A good test of local sportsmanship, and of the joy in playing derived by players, is the distance the referee must travel to the game. The greater the distance, the less joy for all concerned. Financial Assistance The less interscholastic athletic association officials have to do with money the more surely will they keep their minds free for honest thoughts and their policies conducive to healthful and happy athletic activities.7 Money is needed to carry on asso6 The safety of interscholastic athletics as play for schoolboys can be maintained only by unflagging zeal in preventing interested adults from interfering with the players, usurping their prerogatives and destroying their pleasure or enjoyment in the game. Of late, the custom has grown among adults, of transferring all interfering privileges to a coach. He should be checked, or relieved of this burden. A highly successful method of accomplishing the end is explained in Part I of the book cited in the note on page 80. 7The statement is attributed to Theodore Roosevelt that "when money comes in at the gate (true) amateurism flies out of the athletic field." 94 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS ciation business-provide postage, paper, stenographic, telephone, and printing services, and possibly to defray some of the costs of association tournaments. In most cases the total expenses will be very light, however. Perhaps five dollars per school per year will be sufficient if each school pays the traveling expenses of its own delegates and players. Above all, interscholastic athletic associations should not benefit directly from any games played. Attachment of any portion of the receipts of games immediately puts the association "in business"~ and gives it a vested interest in the enterprise. Players are then transformed into professionals-workers who are paid (if at all) only in glory, trips, and small favors such as dinners, medals, and bric-a-brac. A whole train of evils is invited and nourished by the creation and swelling of any athletic association treasury. A balance of one dollar at the end of each year denotes a healthy condition.8 Whether the association should lay down regulations concerning attendance charges for games under its control or general direction is questionable. Certainly it should not collect money from spectators at its tournaments, and certainly the best (and safest) conditions exist only when local authorities make no charges for admission to their contests. Local conditions vary, however, and it may be necessary or desirable to place a pecuniary bar to attendance at schoolboys' games. While providing an ideal example (association officials seldom receive any pay for their services other than enjoyment of the work) and while keeping local authorities informed concerning the desirability of eliminating gate receipts, associations them-, selves probably should not interfere, by means of regulations, with local policies. B A real problem in social ethics is involved wherever a moving population is induced to increase a treasury balance from which it will not benefit. If "paying as you go" is proper it is as wrong to increase a surplus which the contributors cannot use as to purchase advantages (like roads) with bonds which those who do not use them will pay for. In school affairs the situation is even more difficult. Though children may benefit by acquiring habits of frugality anid charity (towards their younger brothers) they ought not to be handicapped by being induced, during years of adolescent growth, to provide for unborn adolescents who may, theoretically, benefit from their foresight. CHAPTER X IMPROPER FUNCTIONS OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC ASSOCIATIONS General Principles Since athletic activities are highly social in nature, and since interscholastic athletic associations exist primarily to foster the increase of happy, social contacts in athletics, between schools, any policy or procedure which tends to curtail activities or destroy social harmony should be rejected by association officials. For example, a policy of "as few games as possible each season" would soon destroy the association whose directing officers held it. Likewise, policies of eliminating from the association each year, the school lowest in athletic ability, or broadcasting the information that certain schools were very weak (or very strong) in playing powers, ought to prove ruinous to the success of any interscholastic athletic association. Nor is it necessary that policies be held consciously to prevail and be effective. For example, no active policy concerning health is a virtual policy to destroy health in any program which threatens physical welfare. Yet three improper functions. are already practiced quite generally throughout the United States: 1. Elimination tournaments are the mode in sports which lend themselves to such treatment (as do golf, tennis, and handball); practically all championship tournaments are so conducted with the idea in mind to dispose of pretenders to the supreme honor as quickly as possible. This tendency to curtail the number of contests shows signs of being overthrown already, however. Instead of confining their schedules to first team games, some leagues are now providing for second, third, and fourth team schedules. These adjustments are admirable and may be used quite generally. 2. Wherever league championships are "decided," honored by trophies, and broadcast by press and radio, it is inevitable that the public will have its attention drawn to the relative standings of 95 96 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS all participants. Consequently, those lowest in ability will find their weaknesses called to the notice of all. The reaction to this situation will be a feeling of shame and a desire either to withdraw from all competition or to secure revenge. Both attitudes are undesirable and unnecessary. If league officials guard their programs well, the general public need never become keenly aware of the relative abilities of different schools in scoring powers. 3. The need of health safeguards has been discussed in the previous chapters. The great majority of leagues have, in the past, had but the most casual interest in this field, while in encouraging dangerous sports and championship tournaments they have contributed to the destruction of the health of many players. This neglect should be remedied at once. Eligibility Rules Eligibility rules formulated and administered by association officials are of questionable value in the conduct and improvement of interscholastic athletics. Certainly they are the immediate cause of much highly unsocial behavior on the part of members schools; while fully ninety per cent of the time and energy of athletic association officials is devoted to problems arising out of eligibility rules. Moreover, practically every eligibility case considered involves bitter feelings which spread from individuals to teams and schools, and sometimes affect whole communities. A host would hardly invite to a dinner "X, and those of his family who were over 21 years of age, who had learned a trade, who had been in the family for at least three years, (to! exclude recent in-laws) and who had never received money for eating. " Athletic associations may properly leave to each school the deter-,mination and administration of qualifications for membership on its own athletic teams. That such latitude may safely be granted is proved almost daily by many public and private schools whose -arrangements for games do not include. formal statements of eligibility limitations. That the policy stated above ought to function to the advantage of all concerned will be clear to those who accept two underlying principles. These are, first, that athletic associations schedule games only between teams approximately equal in abilities; and second, that athletic associations actively discourage attempts to glorify victory as measured by' scores; or even provide, or countenance the IMPROPER FUNCTIONS 97 giving of, extrinsic rewards for skilful play. The first of these principles will be discussed here; the second will be discussed in a subsequent section. The chief reason for imposing eligibility rules from outside (through athletic association officials rather than through local principals acting entirely on their own initiative) is to prevent ambitious schools from concentrating great and unfair superiority of playing powers in their teams in order to win games. When each school has been free to use any player it could attract, experience has shown that some schools induce pupils to remain after graduation, after they are past the usual or decent high school ages, and whether they attend school or not; star players are paid for their services, and occasionally teams are recruited which represent the school as little as a major-league professional baseball team represents the city whose name it takes and where its home grounds are located. Under such conditions teams from schools which have less money, or stricter local scholarship regulations, or a higher sense of duty towards legitimate pupils lose to the ambitious schools; their players risk serious physical injuries in competition with their older and stronger competitors; and so on. However, eligibility rules do not guarantee equality-not even a degree of it. This truth is demonstrated daily by teams which still win and lose by overwhelming scores, even though religiously observing the same eligibility rules. If athletic associations were as active in devising ways of equalizing the powers of competing teams by positive scientific methods as they now are in administering eligibility rules which are purely negative, the need of eligibility rules would no longer be felt by any person who now wants them for the sake of fair competition for all. Thus, if the abilities of competing teams were equalized by proper means, and if eligibility rules were abolished, the chronologically older pupil would be eliminated only if his ability were too great for the skill and power of his competitors-and why should he be penalized otherwise? 1 The "transfer" pupil, induced to change schools because of his athletic prowess, would no longer 1 Whoever attempts to defend the use of age as a factor in the selection or rejection of athletics for interscholastic competition should tell why he desires to use this measure. He also must define the age he would use. Chronological age has very little significance in education today. Physiological age (if it could be measured) would be more significant. Mental age would be more defensible than either (on the grounds on which age limits are usually defended). 98 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS be tempted to transfer, because the chief effect of his participation would be to deprive some local boy of the privilege of playing. (The local team's total ability would not be increased, because steps would need to be taken to reduce its strength in other respects in order to avoid the creation of playing power which would overwhelm opponents.) 2 Money payments need not be feared either under these ideal conditions as money is useful to secure overwhelming superiority, to advertise the town, to win bets, or to earn glory for the school. The ideal of equality nullifies these objectives and therefore eliminates the danger. School teams in associations which schedule games between equals are not interested in advertising the town or winning bets; and glory as a result of victory when equality is the ideal is a hollow, tinkling cymbal at best. Indeed, where equality is the ideal, an overwhelming score indicates quite the opposite of "victory." It reveals the association's inefficiency in matching teams for competition. Finally, when the ideal of fair play rules, school officials will not be tempted to use players whose scholars-hip is weak; there will be no reason for so doing. It may be stated without fear of convincing contradiction that those who display the greatest interest in association-imposed eligibility rules are also those- most interested in preventing opponents from overwhelming their own players in competition at least-and securing victory for themselves at most. The underlying motive may be the physical safety of players, social justice to. local boys, or desire for the glory of local victory. The argument returns, however, to elimination of inequalities between competing teams-a worthy objective, but one which eligibility rules sometimes tend to discourage rather than advance. Eligibility rules are also used as bludgeons to serve the ends. of principals and teachers. who cannot otherwise prevail upon their pupils to meet their academic obligations, and in this field there is no question concerning their effects on pupils. Whether the teachers will or no, eligibility rules force on the very pupils who most need to learn to love "studies" a false brand of academic efficiency, for the pupils must please their teachers or be deprived of the privilege 2 This does not mean that pupils would be taught to loaf, or be handicapped otherwise but that smaller, less experienced local players would take the place of more competent loca~l players. IMPROPER FUNCTIONS 9 99 of interscholastic competition. Thus, athletics often "carry" mathematics and Latin, to the detriment of all concerned. The pupilathlete learns, but what he learns is to dislike both teacher and subject; the teacher is tempted more and more each year to lean on a crutch (threats of disqualifying athletes who do not do his or her bidding) instead of meeting teaching problems squarely. More often teachers do not wish so to use athletics, but are required to report pupils' standings in order that the principal may comply with -league or association regulations. In these circumstances: the "outsider" league interferes seriously with sound educational principles, inflicting unwanted burdens on otherwise competent teachers. In this event the competent teachers "carry"~ incompetent teachers and principals in other communities, to the detriment of pupils in both communities. Whether any scholarship qualifications should be prerequisites to membership on representative school teams is a mooted question.3 Because he cannot or will not learn mathematics is hardly a proper reason for denying a pupil the privilege of learning games and sports, unless the latter are not educative. And if they are not, they ought to be discarded for all pupils! That an outside organization should impose scholarship requirements on any school ought to be intolerable to its principal and teachers. Perhaps local administrators should not permit pupils to represent their school unless the scholarship of the pupils is a credit to themselves and to the institution. But this is not a matter which ought to be under the continuous surveillance of an athletic association, any more than the athletic activities of prize scholars should be reviewed by scholastic associations-if only because scholarship rules foster a counterfeit scholarship which no true scholar would care to indorse. But other reasons are advanced in defense of other than scholarship eligibility rules. The age-limit rule, f or example, protects young, growing boys from the physical harm which grown men might do them. Age, however, is a comparatively poor criterion of physical prowess. Weight is more than twice as significant as age in this respect, and strength is twice as significant as weight. It is chiefly because age and weight are (though relatively poor) meas3Stanford University believes they should not. Any student in the university is assumed to be eligible to represent the university. The best defense of this attitude is the observation that school debaters, musicians, and dramatists are not required to be "up" in athletics as a prerequisite to membership on these teams. Nor should they. 100 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS ures of strength that they are useful in measuring the potential physical harm which may come to weaker players in competition with those who are stronger. When the physical powers of competing teams are equalized, a great step forward will be taken in protecting players' physical health, and the "age rule" may safely be dropped. Any careful investigator may easily establish the validity of three propositions discussed above: first, that equality between competing teams is an ideal adjustment in athletics which is tacitly accepted almost everywhere and which underlies (very deeply) and which is used to justify most eligibility rules; second, that active acceptance by associations and member schools of the ideal of equality, (which means honest use of the most effective means to insure at least approximate equality between competitors in all games) will almost completely eliminate the need of any eligibility rules imposed by the associations;4 and third, that eligibility rules serve but poorly at best the objectives they were designed to advance. The Future of Eligibility Rules The single eligibility rule which scholastic athletic associations may properly enforce is the presentation of a medical certificate of physical competence by each player before he may engage in games scheduled by the association. The wisdom of this requirement is so obvious that it should not have to be classified as a rule. Any local administrators who, in the past, have omitted this precautionary measure should immediately take steps to protect their pupils from avoidable strains, and themselves from blame by establishing this requirement. Other eligibility rules ought to be abolished by interscholastic athletic associations. As has been suggested, most of them are defended because they are supposed to prevent gross inequalities between teams; actually they do not accomplish even this objective satisfactorily, but do seem to blind association officials to the need of active measures which will eliminate all but minor and in4Each school principal should impose certain eligibility requirements for his own pupils. These will depend on his own philosophy of education and school programs. They may include medical certificates of physical competence, some scholarship requirements, a record of good social behavior, attendance at school for some: period of time before the game to be played, and possibly others. Age requirements and amateurism, as defined by most amateur athletic associations, are particularly to be condemned, however. IMPROPER FUNCTIONS 101 significant inequalities between competitors. Moreover, many eligibility rules are unwarranted and cramping infringements upon prerogatives which local school authorities should guard most jealously. Finally, the administration of eligibility rules causes much social friction of a decidedly undesirable and unproductive nature. Scholastic athletic associations cannot "leave well enough alone" in any event. They must either continue to add more interpretations, and a longer list of requirements, or simplify, or abandon those they now use. Improvement of social relationships in scholastic athletics can be accomplished only by taking the latter road. Along this same road lie also the greatest opportunities for protecting players' health and giving to local authorities the necessary freedom to determine eligibility requirements and "make exceptions" more in accordance with their own broader educational policies and programs.5 Glorifying Personal Superiority 6 The very soul of humanism in relationships between groups or individuals is sincere regard for personality; the foundation of democracy is equality; the key to successful social behavior is careful avoidance of attitudes of superiority or inferiority. The host ceases to attract friends to his house if he assumes an air of social superiority. His affairs become unpopular to the extent that some guests are exalted while others are degraded, and eventually his invitations are something to be automatically declined. Imagine a banquet to which eight guests were invited but which was so arranged that only two were permitted to share the dessert, or a dance given solely to determine the best dancers, or a party whose chief outcome was a listing, after careful tests, of the guests' "5 The chief value of eligibility rules (when administered by outside agencies) is to protect local authorities from local "sports," gamblers, 100% "our-towners," and a few others who care more for winning teams than for the physical or social welfare of the local or any other school children. School administrators who must meet these social menaces should be assisted by every legitimate means. Usually a firm stand is sufficient to drive off the opposition (for it consists of a small minority-an appeal to parents will succeed instantly if properly made). In the last extremity new and better employment should be (and usually is) found for the principal who has fought his battle intelligently as well as courageously. But it is usually a mistake to fight evil with a wrong. Eligibility rules are not a grave evil but they provide a shelter for the hesitant school administrator-a virtual retreat, which reveals weakness, and increases his fear of the erring but vociferous minority. 6 A thorough castigation of prizes for good behavior is found in "Ever Grateful for the Prize," by Agnes Repplier, The Atlantic Monthly, October, 1928, page 467. This essay should be read by every school teacher and administrator. 102 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS relative qualities as gentlewomen and gentlemen. In a highly sanguinary and predatory tribe of savages such events might be deemed delicious hors d'oeuvres or amusing divertissements, but in any society of civilized beings they could be imagined only by the gauche, experimented with only by the uninformed, and approved by none who were sensitive and humane. Yet these procedures are common in athletics. The elimination tournament discards half of the players or teams after the first "round" and only two meet for the "dessert." The chief outcome is to exalt one team above all others. Once again, similar rules are followed in athletic affairs by those who care for pleasure through social contacts in games and sports. The very soul of good sportsmanship is regard for the personalities of playfellows, and this regard is manifested by refusal to force one's own peculiar superiorities on others. The basis of fair competition is equality, that is, assurance that opponents are worthy of one's own mettle, in order that both sides may derive the greatest joys from playing or, indeed, that there may be any game at all. The key to friendship between athletes is avoidance of publicity for proofs of superior or inferior athletic powers. That these obvious rules of good social behavior in interscholastic athletics are broken daily is no earnest of their invalidity; it is a clear indication that interscholastic athletics are far from functioning as socializing activities. Rather are they organized along "business lines," and for "business," that is to say, for almost purely selfish ends. Most interscholastic athletic associations are guilty (if it be "guilt" simply to follow tradition) of three unsocial practices: (1) emphasizing and rewarding athletic victories by publicity and rewards; (2) exalting record performances; and (3) determining or announcing championships. These will be discussed briefly below. 1. That there shall be victor and defeated, (as measured by the score or by the distance separating runners at the finish) is almost as inevitable in athletics as that "mileage" will be registered on an automobile speedometer during a week-end pleasure trip. But the success of a trip is not measured in terms of miles traveled. "More miles than last week's trip" does not mean more pleasure. Neither does the score measure the satisfaction of players in their game. It is possible, however, to elevate anything to supreme importance by artificial means. For example, the number of a lottery ticket is IMPROPER FUNCTIONS 103 of supreme importance to its holder, and the movements of a metal ball in a plate may be watched breathlessly by players at the roulette table. Similarly, a host may offer a fabulous reward to the guest who guesses correctly the number of windows in his house or who dances longest, or bows lowest, or eats the largest amount of food. Thus may insignificant incidents or powers be magnified until they dominate the entertainment, reducing it to a show, a competition, a battle. Interscholastic athletic associations should not lend their services to the degradation of athletics by methods which exalt victory or the score. Awards of cups, medals, banners-these are unnecessary to stimulate intrinsically interesting activities; uninteresting games ought not to be so stimulated. It may be necessary to stimulate young children by offers of trinkets, but in secondary and higher schools they are wholly unnecessary. Moreover, the very existence of rewards only tends to drive competitors apart.7 Perhaps friends of sport will contend that the abolition of awards would "take the heart out of amateur athletics," dilute them, inoculate them with the disease of general debility, kill interscholastic sports. Such statements are possible only among uninformed persons. The most healthful conditions, including keen competition, fair play, and highly social attitudes, abound in the absence of trophies, whereas the more intrinsically valuable the trophy, the greater is the danger that the only "gain" will be in concentration on the score by players, while fair play will be abandoned and the emotions of participants will require stern discipline (either inner or from the outside) to control. Trophies in amateur sports only take the place of money awards in professional sports. 2. Of the three unsocial procedures listed, that of preserving records of athletic events, and especially records of supreme performances (so-called world's records) is perhaps the least destructive. Nevertheless, it serves no good end.8 Printing in reports, yearbooks, memoranda, or in this year's calendars of events or programs, and broadcasting in newspapers, the names of victorious teams in former contests and tournaments, simply intensifies the importance of win7The American League (professional baseball association) abolished the annual "'most valuable player award" because its chief effect was to engender jealousies among players and harm the recipient of the award. 8 Records of human behavior always have potential scientific value, the importance of which is in no way questioned here. The author refers only to the effects on the players themselves. 104 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS ning this year, and renders natural rivals all the more determined to humiliate each other, or, to put the case more gently, (but not more accurately) all the more keen to secure glory for themselves. Perpetuating record performances in track and field events is doubtless the least objectionable of this type of unwise publicity. As long as races are measured in minutes and seconds (and tenths of seconds) and as long as jumps and throws are measured in feet and inches (and hundredths of inches) athletes and spectators will be curious to know how this year's performances compare with last year's, or those of "the record year." The chief unsocial results of preserving and announcing records may be estimated from observations of the overt behavior of spectators and athletes. How often do spectators groan and athletes grimace after a thrilling race or exhibition of skill when the measurer announces a mediocre time or distance! How often do cheers rend the air when an easy victory is announced as a new world (or state or league, or city) record! It is human to enjoy contemporaneousness, but it is no part of a host's proper behavior to give passing amusements the aspect of historical events. In truth, amusements and events are mutually repellent in nature. To reduce events to amusements is to degrade life-gladitorial shows in Rome when the lives of men were at stake are an example. To elevate play to the importance of events is to destroy play as play-any athlete struggling for notoriety through establishing a world's record is an example. Witness the athlete pitting his powers against the accomplishments of all fellow-performers who have gone before; seeking to wrest from them their claims to glory and immortality by breaking the record. The process is childish and should be regarded with condescension. Probably it ought to be condemned in the same spirit that gentlemen condemn the guest at a house-party who seeks to gain distinction by winning all the games played by any other guest. The records themselves are so puerile, too-like those pianists might make if they should vie with each other to determine who could make the most noise, or strike the largest number of keys in five minutes; or such records as eating more eggs or drinking more water "than ever before was accomplished by man." But no host of culture or humanity would aid such a guest in his ambition; and no athletic association interested in maintaining "the spirit of the game," the integrity of personality, or the pleasure of players IMPROPER FUNCTIONS 105 will pay any more attention to past records than it is required to by forces completely beyond its control. 3. The exigencies of life demand that distinctions be made between good, better, and best in quality and quantity of goods or services bought and sold. Barter involves an exchange of lives-one man's time (a span of his life) spent on cultivation of the ground is exchanged for his neighbor's who cobbles shoes. The transaction is a business one, in which each party seeks to exchange his surplus goods or time for the best return that can be purchased. And since the available range of goods and services is so great that no one person can appraise each offering himself, he must rely, to some extent at least, on their several reputations.- One will willingly pay more to hear music which he may be assured in advance will be good than for a ticket to an unknown performer's show. This is as it should be in a world organized on a commercial basis. But interscholastic athletics ought not to be so organized, and the need of widespread publicity to inform the world of the quality of goods to be purchased should not exist. The amateur champion is prevented, by rules which he as a good sportsman will be the most dilligent to observe, from being paid for his performances. Therefore, abilities have no money value. But his reputation sets him apart from other athletes (and this he does not want) and championships induce erstwhile playmates to fall out among themselves. Thus, the determination of championships is about as unsocial a process as can be imagined. Guests at social affairs always secretly and sometimes openly despise games whose chief object is to discover and crown a champion (with the possible exception of the champion who is not aware of the price he pays in friendships for his elevation to special notice). Hosts who arrange such affairs sometimes wonder at the queer smiles, the forced laughter, the surcharged atmosphere which characterize guests' behavior. They should realize that the greater the honor conferred on the champion the lower the'social tone of the evening.9 Of course, all the points made against the exaltation of victory and records are emphasized in championships. If there were no 9 Occasionally a vaudeville act includes some,competition between actors, after which spectators are requested to select the victor by applause. The process always degrades the performers and displeases spectators who are sensitive or sympathetic. Besides, it serves no good end, and is seldom used except as a trick to cover up a weak performance or beguile an audience into active approval of an act it might otherwise receive in silence. 106 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS other reason for condemning them than that they throttle the very breath of social life in athletics, interscholastic athletic associations should use their influence to stamp them out. That such organizations have the determination of athletic championships as one of their chief functions is a fact, but such conditions are readily altered. PART III EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES CHAPTER XI THE NATURE AND VALUES OF EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES It is the function of Chapters XI and XII to state the theory of extra-curricular activities whose central principle may as well be stated at once as "pupil freedom with responsibility." In other words, these two chapters attempt to define extra-curricular activities in terms of relationship between pupils and teachers. The underlying motive is to free both pupils and teachers from unwarranted and wholly improper control by school authorities of pupils' leisure-time activities. The principles enunciated apply with almost equal force to athletics, dramatics, journalism, art, music, and all other phases of pupil life, but as treated hereafter they are particularly applicable to the proper conduct of interscholastic games and sports. Readers who accept the educational principle of "learning by doing" will appreciate the basis on which "the functions of interscholastic athletic associations" rest, and will readily accept the principle of "pupil freedom with responsibility" for all extra-curricular activities. Definitions Literally interpreted, the extra-curricular activities of school children comprise all those not included in the curriculum of the school they attend. Household duties, attendance at motion picture theaters, Boy Scout activities, private piano lessons, business college cofrses, foreign language study, and even schoolbook reading are extra-curricular activities, if or when they are not included in the school curriculum and performed in accordance with curriculum requirements. Thus, life itself may be divided, for school children, into two parts-curricular and extra-curricular, and therefore a definition of extra-curricular activities can best be formulated in contrast with curricular activities. 109 110 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS Curricular activities may be distinguished in many ways. They are defined in brief by the titles of the various subjects taught at stated hours by members of the school faculty. They are defined in detail by the subject-headings or course materials attached to each title. They are defined still more completely by the subject matter contained in syllabi and textbooks, and finally by the assignments and classroom activities of teachers and pupils. Or, curricular activities may be defined in terms of behavior upon which depend school marks, credits toward graduation, and diplomas. Any activity upon which a certificate of proficiency in school work depends certainly is curricular.' Finally, any activity under the official direction and control of school authorities may be termed curricular. This last and broadest definition avoids many embarrassing problems, is not ambiguous, and confirms the validity of the literal definition of extra-curricular activities as including all pupil activities not under the official direction and control of school officers. The Meanings of "Direction and Control" These definitions raise a problem concerning the real limits of "official direction and control." A complete answer to this problem would involve an exposition of an entire philosophy and method of teaching. At this point only the briefest explanation is given. 1. Direction presupposes a goal in the mind of the director. Any pupil-activity directed by a teacher (any curricular activity) must be in accordance with the will of the teacher. Moreover, it must follow a pattern approximating or at least compatible with the teacher's plan. Otherwise it is an extra-curricular activity; it exists independently of and apart from the teacher. The most obvious type of teacher-direction is the assignment of a lesson to be studied, a theme to be written, or an experiment to be performed. But even a project conceived by and carried out according to the pupil's plan at such times as the pupil determines is still teacher-directed and curricular if it is subject to and actually receives the latter's direction by the flat of any school authority. The most typical of such projects are materials designed and executed in school woodworking and machine shops, and the projects so 1 Conversely, any activity under teacher control should have some weight and be evaluated in calculating the individual pupil's progress toward proficiency and the right to the certificates depending thereon. EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES11 ill effectively guided by teachers of agriculture in secondary schools. A newer type of project, which is an expression of the "project method" of teaching, may include any school activity, even multiplication table drills "purposed, planned, executed, and judged" by the pupil himself. All these are teacher-directed, that is, curricular activities whenever the teacher directs them, if ever so subtly. Direction, however, exists only when it is exercised. Teachers abandon their directing function (and therefore their curricular teaching) whenever they permit pupil projects to run counter to their own objectives. Such occurrences are common in schools, since not even the most skilful teachers can maintain constantly that intimate contact with pupils' minds which is necessary to direct their activities. The essential nature of direction in curricular activities is the dominance of the school officer's plans over any counter projects of the pupil. By contrast, and as an example of the failure of the teacher to maintain contact with his pupils' minds, private-letter writing in an English classroom during a lecture on letter writing is not teacher-directed, and is therefore extra -curricular, if the teacher has not at least tacitly sanctioned it as part of, or compatible with, her plans. Letter writing during a lecture on "courtesy to lecturers" is more obviously not teacher-directed, as is any other activity which does not coincide with the plans of the teacher. Public school and college classrooms are full of extra- curricular activities! 2. Control indicates power to veto any plan or activity, or substitute another for it. For example, teachers have almost absolute control in their classrooms; their word is law. Like direction, control exists only when it is exercised; it may be delegated or abandoned. Thus, control over a classroom full of pupils may be delegated by the principal or teacher to a pupil, who may then direct his fellow pupils in either curricular or extracurricular activity. To the degree that the teacher directs socialized recitations, for example, they are curricular; but to the degree that pupils fail to conform to teacher plans, even socialized recitations are extra-curricular.2 For example, a classroom celebration of an 2 This illustration may seem to be finely drawn, even to the point where the reader must conclude that there is no logical distinction between curricular and extra -curricular activities. Certainly there is no phase of a schoolchild's life which is not affected by his teacher. On the other hand, there are highly significant implications in conceiving the distinction, and practical values in doing -so, just as there are in distinguishing between plants and animals, or mind and body. It is possible, too, that the school curriculum may be more inclusive than any teacher's curriculum. 112 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS athletic victory, if planned and conducted by pupils, and especially if disapproved by teachers, is extra -curricular. So is discussion of school parties, or even of national politics in a civics class, if carried on by pupils in spite of the disapproval of the teacher. On the other hand, these same activities become curricular wherever and whenever the teacher approves them as part of his or her plan, and directs their progress. Four Types of School-Child Activity Following the criterion of "direction and control" the activities of school children may be divided into four types according to the nature of adult influence affecting them. One of these is curricular; the other three are extra- curricular; and each type is predominant during certain periods of the day, but there is much overlapping in every case. 1. Curricular activities begin with the first hour of the school day, and are characterized by close teacher control. As the school day progresses, however,,and even as each class hour draws to its close, teacher control is relaxed until during the last hours teachers (especially in the modern schools) withdraw practically all of their supervisory or interfering activities, leaving pupils largely to "selfdetermination." Examples of each extreme are the rigid requirement that pupils be in their seats "promptly at 9 o'clock" or "at 8:30 sharp,"'in the morning; and the freedom for intramural projects, study hall activities, student body programs, and laboratory research which characterizes the last hours of the school day in the most progressive schools.3 2. The most "extra" of extra- curricular activities are those under the direction and control of parents, and again these vary in character according to the degree of control exerted by parents. The average high school pupil is relatively free immediately "after school," but comes more and more under parental domination until the dinner hour and bedtime. This type of adult control will be designated as "Type A extra -curricular activity."114 3Curricular activities may be divided (as also may extra -curricular) into several types depending on the quality of adult influence exerted. The four divisions used here are control, direction, guidance, and assistance. '-Neither teachers nor parents ever relinquish entirely their influence over pupils. On the one hand teachers assign study lessons or "home-work," which extend their control into homes. On the other hand, parents prescribe certain types of behavior for their children during school hours, but examples of parental influence in pupils' classroom activities relate chiefly to their support of teacher authority. EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 113 The ebb and flow of adult direction and control of senior high school children's activities is illustrated in Chart VI, page 123. Teacher control begins, and has its greatest force, at the moment of beginning the school day, after which it gradually (and properly) ebbs toward the end of each class period, but revives at the beginning of each new period when pupils "must" be in seats or at machines ready for instruction. But the power of adults to dominate pupils' minds and actions steadily wanes through the school day until the hour of dismissal, when it ceases to exist except intermittently. Parental control begins only feebly at this point, increasing steadily until the dinner hour, ebbing again, and regaining its full strength at the retiring hour which most parents wisely prescribe to protect their children's health. 3. The result of these two periods of least control coming together is a span of moments or hours when pupils are freest from adult interference. This is the period of their most real leisure time, when they can choose their own activities and act according to their own desires. Some pupil-directed and controlled activities are continued on school property and others are initiated elsewhere. Consequently, from the standpoint of adult influence, two more types of extracurricular activity exist. The first of these two types of leisure-time, extra-curricular activities is characterized by the influences of school environment, and is closely related to curricular programs, as dramatics and public speaking are to English, or interscholastic athletics are to physical education. School properties are used, and teachers are assigned to protect the properties and aid the pupils. Some leisure-time extra-curricular activities may engage the attention of both pupils and teachers even before the school day begins. One peak is reached during the lunch hour and another soon after formal curricular activities end for the day. The phase closes with the locking of school doors and gates. This phase of adult control will be designated as "Type B extra-curricular activity." 4. The third general type of extra-curricular, and the second of *adult-aided but pupil-directed and controlled activity is that in which the assisting adults are others than school officers. Parents, friends, playground directors, Boy and Girl Scout leaders, Y.M.C.A. agents, and public spirited citizens of all kinds (including teachers acting on their own responsibility, and parents acting as friends 114 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS of their children rather than "officially") belong to this group. This phase of adult control will be designated as "Type C extra-curricular activity." Of the three types of extra- curricular activities described, educators are interested primarily in Type B-those occurring on school property and aided by school officers. The remainder of this chapter will be concerned chiefly with this type of pupil activity. Three Major Values of Type B Extra- Curricular Activities By definition, Type B extra- curricular activities are those pupil activities which occur on school property or are aided by school officers acting officially but which are pupil-planned, pupil-directed, and pupil- controlled. At this point a clear differentiation should be made between teacher-aid and guidance and teacher-direction. The teacher aids or guides only when pupils are free to reject any assistance or advice, and when pupils are fully aware of their own rights and privileges to do so.. To the extent that the teacher imposes his own plans and programs on pupils, his interference becomes direction or control and not aid. Pupil activities are no longer extra -curricular when teachers direct them in their official capacities. They are curricular. 1. The outstanding quality of Type B extra -curricular activities is their spontaneity. They -are, above all, natural, for no adults have forced or otherwise directed pupils either to initiate them or carry them to any conclusion. Consequently, they are as near to play as pupils can come in the school environment, and they should yield to pupils more activity, joy, satisfaction, and possibly development than any other phase of school life. Certainly curricular activities cannot. be as spontaneous or natural, and therefore cannot yield the same results; though the best teachers may in their most inspired moments of leadership approximate the conditions which produce spontaneity. 2. Being entirely pupil-directed and pupil- controlled, Type B activities provide pupils with supremely valuable experiences in self-management. Freedom with responsibility is an essential prerequisite to the best and fullest learning, acquirement of moral fibre, and ability to play a creditable part on life's stage. Curricular. activities and even parent-directed extra- curricular projects cannot give to pupils the same kind or quality of experience which leisure EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 115 time pupil-planned and controlled activities afford. At their best, curricular activities may yield somewhat similar results, but the freedom of pupils will always be curtailed, while, do what he may, the teacher cannot (and should not) shift complete responsibility for the selection and conduct of curricular activities to pupils' shoulders. 3. Of all the behavior school children indulge in under the eyes of teachers, pupil-controlled leisure-time activities are the most social. Here, if anywhere in the school environment, pupils may most fully satisfy their gregarious inclinations, and opportunities abound for the exercise of cooperative projects. Indeed, a penetrating analysis of most extra-curricular activities will reveal that pupils enjoy their social more than their technical phases. For example, dramatics often are indulged in primarily for the intimate social contacts they afford players; journalism provides a common social meeting place for a peculiar type of individual; and even athletics (if adults permit) are enjoyed often more for the social cooperation than for the physical competition. Whoever questions this statement should apply the test of taking away from these activities both the social experiences (by rendering each performer a bitter professional rival of every other performer) and all extrinsic incentives (such as publicity, medals, school letters, and the like) and observe how few pupils continue to engage in the activity. It is even possible to contrast three types of pupil activity roughly according to the predominant nature of each in terms of pupil behavior. Academic activities are primarily mental; manual training, gymnastics, and some athletics are primarily physical; and those extra-curricular activities which engage the attentions of the great majority of pupils are primarily social in nature. The contributions to pupils' social growth which Type B extracurricular activities make are of such immense value that every means should be taken to preserve their integrity, that is, to prevent social values from being lost or checkmated.' Six Minor Values of Type B Extra-Curricular Activities 1. Being pupil-projected during hours of comparative freedom from adult coercion, extra-curricular activities are more truly leisure-time activities than are any others occurring on school property. As such they are truly recreative in the sense that they relieve minds and bodies from mental complexes and physical constriction. 116 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS 2. Type B activities provide instructors with valuable measures of their own efficiency as teachers. What activities do pupils choose to follow during their leisure time? Do some pupils continue their chemistry experiments? Do others go in for dramatics? Do still others play at public speaking, drawing, woodworking, domestic arts, student body government, newspaper writing and composition, and athletics? Teachers who, year, after year, have no pupils who freely continue their curricular activities in some form during the hours after school should conclude that, by one important criterion, the teaching periods are at least a partial failure. Moreover, teachers may measure the effectiveness of their classroom teaching by observing the command over subject matter and techniques displayed by pupils when they act independently of adult direction. The English teacher will learn much concerning her own teaching weaknesses by observing pupil -controlled dramatics, public speaking, and journalism; the physical educator will be instructed by watching his pupils play football, basketball, and baseball, and perform in gymnasium exhibitions. 3. Type B activities provide pupils with unique opportunities for discovering and developing their natural interests and abilities. Curricular activities perform this service only poorly at best, for in them the teacher's plans and influence must constrict the pupil's freedom of emotions and interests, and warp his judgments. It is only when the individual is quite free to choose, and project, and plan, and experiment, and make mistakes, and arrive at conclusions unhampered by the necessity of accomplishment, or of pleasing the teacher, or confining activity to any type of behavior or earning marks or credits that natural interests and capacities may bud and flower fully. 4. A coroljary to the value of pupil self-discovery is that teachers, by observing natural pupil interests and activities, may modify their own curricular plans and programs. Teachers may learn much from pupils at first hand concerning the propriety and values of their curricular programs. The school properties may become laboratories for "job analyses" of pupil interests and "case-studies" of pupil behavior which will prove of more worth than most of those from which formal curricula were devised. 5. Type B activities also provide teachers with illuminating revelations of the personalities of their pupils-their emotional makeups, behavior patterns, and social and moral characters. Pupils EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES17 117 seldom behave naturally in classrooms or anywhere when under adult direction and control. It is only 'when they "lose themselves" in their own hopes and fears that their inner natures come to the surface. Teachers who have not availed themselves of this source of confidential information concerning their pupils have no conception of its tremendous value. 6. Leisure-time pupil activities pursued on school properties and aided by teachers provide the school as an institution with an opportunity to win the friendship and gratitude of pupils. Probably the gratitude will be of negligible value, however, for adolescent youth is even more careless in this respect than is maturity. This value were better stated in terms of habits of voluntary and joyous activity on school grounds. Pupils come to regard curricular activities more sympathetically because of the pleasures associated with school grounds or buildings experienced in Type B activities. Other values of activities directed and controlled by pupils on school properties and with the occasional aid, or at least under the eyes of school officers will occur to the reader. To aver that the sum total of the contributions made by these activities exceeds that of curricular activities may be too extravagant, for so much depends on the leadership of pupils in the former and teachers in the latter. Nevertheless some persons do make the assertion, and not without reason. CHAPTER XII SCHOOL OFFICERS AND EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES School Officers' Functions-Proper Sufficient examples have been given in Chapter XI to reveal that pupil-controlled leisure-time activities are often interfered with by adults, to the great detriment of pupils. Therefore, it is necessary to indicate, briefly, the proper functions of school officers in the presence of Type B extra-curricular activities. They include at least the following: 1. Protection of pupils from physical, mental, or social harm. School officers have a prime responsibility to protect from avoidable injury the persons and personalities of pupils on school properties. This function must not be too broadly interpreted, however, for it is easily construed in such a way as to change a bona fide extra-curricular activity into a true curricular activity. When this calamity befalls, the unique values of the pupils' projects dwindle away rapidly. Thus, an English teacher may observe her pupils to be organizing their speeches illogically, presenting them abominably and articulating poorly in their self-directed forensic projects. To her this may be harming her pupils, not only linguistically but even physically. Therefore, shle steps in, corrects the faults, and eventually assumes full control. The action may seem necessary, but many unique values which the teacher may not have included in the balance sheet of her judgment will be lost. Again, a physical educator may be asked to protect a football team from physical harm. Instead of teaching the players the rudiments of self-protection, and then contenting himself with removing from the games those who should be so protected (and who have not yet learned to protect themselves, or will not do so), the specialist becomes a professional coach, assumes the duties of captain, and eventually controls the actions of players to the extent of shifting them from the field to the substitutes' bench and back again at will; otherwise 118 EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 119 treating the players as pawns or automata; and finally taking credit for victory and shouldering blame for defeat. Such games become curricular activities of the very worst type. Teachers charged with protecting pupils from injury should err rather on the side of leniency than hypersensitive professional conscience. If left alone pupils will seldom strain greatly the physical safety factors, and purity of action according to curricular standards whether in English, music, or athletics is almost always too dearly bought when it involves the reduction of extra-curricular activities to the level of curricular tasks. 2. Protection of property from too rapid deterioration. Teachers charged with the protection of school property used by pupils for extra-curricular projects ought not to interfere more than is absolutely necessary. Balls, bats, musical instruments, stage settings, machines, type, tables, rooms and fields are for immediate and whole-hearted use, rather than for "preservation from destruction." Acts of interference to protect property tend to reduce extra-curricular activities to curricular, and should be avoided wherever possible. Pupils should be made as completely responsible for the proper use of school facilities as their integrity and the value of the property used will permit. In this category may be placed protection of the "school name." Censorship of cheering activities at games, of dramatic performances, of parties and dances, and of publications, are examples; and in these activities, too, adult interference should come only as a last resort. 3. Professional aid and guidance. This function of school officers offers the most dangerous openings for reducing extra-curricular activities to the curricular level. Water does not run down hill any surer than does teacher aid degenerate to teacher direction and control. Professional aid and guidance may be conceived of as services similar to those rendered by a consulting engineer whose advice is sought intermittently by wholly independent industrial, financial, or professional bodies. Teachers who are so honored by pupils as to be called or sent to aid or advise them must keep this concept clearly before them, else they will commit the crime of assuming control. School administrators should exercise the utmost care in assigning teachers to aid pupils in the latter's extra-curricular activities. 120 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS It is better to assign a teacher to extra- curricular activities in which he has no special interest than to permit him to become engrossed in "aiding" pupils who are experimenting in that teacher's specialty. Pupils are so docile, eager, and defenseless, withal. It is proper for an English teacher to guide (at the pupils' request) pupils presenting a play in the choice of a suitable vehicle, scenery, costumes, casting, and even rehearsals; or to aid by finding materials, funds, and co-players (also at the pupils' request). Likewise, it is proper for a physical educator to advise an interschool athletic team concerning its problems, even to the extent of criticizing practice and games, but decisions concerning the personnel of teams, types of offense and defense, use of substitutes, strategy, and like judgments should be made by pupils. The teacher should insist that pupils always make the actual choices, give final directions, and assume full responsibility. Teachers should not offer advice unless it is requested,' or find materials, funds, or playmates, except when urged. 4. Financial and material aid. It is highly problematical whether the school should assist pupils in extra- curricular activities by grants of money. On the other hand, as the school provides rooms, grounds, lights, etc., it may add to this list such materials as are used in regular school activities. Athletic. paraphernalia, stage scenery, laboratory apparatus, machine shop tools, and journalism equipment come in this category. But Boy Scout insignia, athletic team traveling expenses and the like should be paid for by pupils. 5. Protection from adult interference. One of the paramount functions of school officers must be to prevent adults from assuming any directing or controlling powers over Type B extra- curricular activities. It is not enough that teachers themselves avoid this destructive fault, for there are always outsiders with both time and inclination to extend their influence over humanity in general and over children in particular. In perfectly good faith and with the best of conscious motives they will seek to control athletic teams, direct pageants, organize and control clubs of various kinds, stage plays, and even coach debating teams.2 I Teachers are not precluded, by these rules, from directing and controlling plays, games, and concerts initiated by themselves. Such activities may well be curricular as well as extra -curricular. But the teacher must distinguish between them and treat each type appropriately. 3 Competent and successful adults are above this level of behavior; it is usually the weak adults who seek to control children's activities for their own satisfaction. EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES12 121 The activities of these* persons usually will be to change Type B to Type A extra- curricular activities. If the interfering adults are properly trained, however, the harm may be lessened by reducing Type B to. Type C extra -curricular activities-a lesser evil though highly dangerous, since adults will almost inevitably descend fromA aiding pupils to controlling them. School Officers' Functions-Improper Several improper functions of school, officers in connection with Type B extra- curricular pupil activities have been suggested above. Two: outstanding faults will be considered more fully here. 1. The chief fault of teachers is the reduction of pupil-planned and -controlled extra- curricular programs to the level of curricular activities. This crime (f or it is no less) is not only common, it is becoming the rule in public secondary schools and even in some higher institutions. Dramatics, journalism, and athletics, for example, no longer belong to pupils who all unwittingly follow the cramping custom of submitting to teacher control. In dramatics the teacher selects the play, casts the characters, orders rehearsals, exhorts the players, administers punishments and in general cavorts about the stage, reducing it to a classroom in which pupils prostitute their play by making it even earn honors and credits for graduation. In journalism lesser evils prevail, but in athletics no semblance of pupil freedom remains.3 The athletic field after school becomes the coach's parade ground, where he drives players to repetitious tasks, painful training schedules, and latterly even "skull-practice"classroom quiz sections wherein pupils recite in much the same manner as third-graders do their geography lessons. What is lost to pupils by this procedure of coaches whose chief gain is improvement in minor techniques of play? Spontaneity, and with it joy in playing is sacrificed, at least partially, and in those cases in which coaches rule with an iron hand, almost completely. Self-management is sadly curtailed. Normal, happy social experiences are diminished at best and rendered unhappy and destructive events at worst. True leisure time is lost, for the program is now curricular in all but official title. Opportunities for 3This statement is no longer true in New York 5tate, and in the city of Detroit, where interschool athletic contests are, by rule, in the hands of players. (See F. R. Rogers, T'he Amateur Spirit in Scholastic Games and Sports, Chapter V). 122 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS pupils to discover their natural interests and prepotencies are restricted, since the teacher must be satisfied at all costs-even at the cost of no playing at all.4 The director of physical education is prevented from discovering his teaching weaknesses and improving his own curriculum. He and other teachers lose precious opportunities to discover the true natures of their pupils; and the school loses, to some extent at least, an opportunity to win willing attendance in its rooms and laboratories. The toll extorted through the control of interschool athletics by professional athletic coaches intent on their own objectives and ambitions is far too great, even if the dubious values claimed were realized. Similarly, practically every activity carried on within school property is assigned to some teacher to "supervise," and has become in fact curricular-another tool used by the teacher to further pupil behavior according to the teacher's design and will. The most skilful teachers, when directing extra- curricular pupil activities, give pupils enough freedom to retain their interest; those teachers with the greatest insight confine their interference within very narrow bo 'unds; but the large majority of teachers still extend their classroom methods to cover all activities. Extra -curricular activities function in practice as extensions of the school day when relatively untrained teachers perform somewhat more in accordance with good educational procedure than they do during "regular" classroom hours. Many public schools would, perhaps, double their effectiveness by the simple expedient of conducting extra-curricular activities (as they now do) during regular curricular hours and omitting many present curricular activities altogether. Pupils then might be freed for true extra- curricular activities during their leisure time. 2. The second great error committed by school officers aiding pupils in their own leisure-time activities is the organization ofil, extrinsic incentives to activity. Even textbooks on extra-curricular activities make much of plans for tempting pupils to engage in a wide variety of extra- curricular circus stunts, rather than allowing them to follow their natural interests. Sometimes rules forcing pupils to indulge in "so many kinds of activity each term" are proposed. Prizes are offered to the "all-round pupils," thus tempting,'The writer remembers with chagrin banishing for the season four players who had broken his rules. Three had gone to the mountains one day to see the snow (in Cali.fornia) instead of appearing for football practice. The fourth insisted on trying for a home run when told to bunt!I EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 123 CQ SI i, Ln db ~ ~ b 124 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS 16. ~~Q h,\,; - k00o e ~ll, " LU LZ 1.0 N EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES12 125 all to attain the mediocrity of average or flapper types, amused with everything but deeply concerned with nothing. Such prizes render pupils more consciously selfish and grasping than nature planned. Cupidity is ree~nforced; altruism is at a discount; and nature is violated to the end that pupils may have experiences without depth, knowledge without understanding, and life without affection. This method of destroying pupils' natural interests and talents is most faithfully followed in games and sports, where physical educators have built up, and are proud of, systems of "incentives"~ which would be of questionable value in prisons. Complicated schemes of point awards are typical examples of these incentives. They are vicious to a high degree, for they literally force pupils into artificial conflict with each other and reduce pupils' leisure time activities to chores for the attainment of selfish as well as silly objectives, thus destroying the spontaneity of what might be the most joyful and productive hours of school children's days. They are too childish for pupils beyond the kindergarten and primary grades; for high school students they are to be condemned without reservation. The Future of Extra- Curricular Activities The present chaotic state of extra- curricular activities in public high schools is due largely to an'almost. complete lack of appreciation of their proper nature, functions,' and conduct. They have been forced upon school administrators, many of whom either neglected or were opposed to pupil activities outside of regularly prescribed courses of study, as interschool, sports have forced themselves on high school principals; they have been such obviously valuable adjuncts to curricular programs that teachers have seized opportunities to utilize them, as English teachers have so well used journalism, dramatics, and debating, and as agriculture teachers have used agricultural "projects." But there has been little understanding that teachers were encroaching on a precious phase of child life soon to become the whole- existence of each pupil, for during maturity each individual must make his own choices, make and execute his own plans, and form his own judgments. When the history of extra- curricular activities is viewed from the standpoint of their relation to adult life, their significance becomes clear, and their values are seen to be overwhelming. At birth the 126 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS individual has no freedom to direct his own life; during maturity no one will direct it for him.5 Education itself, by one helpful definition, is a process of acquiring freedom from constraint, whether from human restrictions or natural law; extra-curricular activity hours are properly those in which the fledgling tries his wings; in which pupils put into practice, on their own initiative, the powers they have acquired from growth in school and at home. That Type B extra-curricular activities perform an important function in the lives of individual pupils is now apparent, for they serve to bridge the gap between dependence on teachers and parents during school life and the independence of adult life. But if Type B activities are reduced to curricular activities by the interference of teachers, and Type C activities are reduced to parentally-controlled activities, pupils have no easy and gradual transition from temporary dependence to inevitable and permanent independence. Pupils thus mistreated come to maturity relatively unprepared for its responsibilities. That is, when teachers (and parents) insist on maintaining close supervision over normally leisure-time hours of pupils' lives, the pupils of necessity miss all those experiences in self-determination which alone will serve to establish habits ot making right choices for themselves. A pupil who chooses to read and act in a Galsworthy play, who enjoys every incident connected with this experience in dramatics, and who acquires a taste for the society of others dramatically inclined, may be trusted to read other Galsworthy plays, and this taste may lead to other literary experiences. But if the episode in dramatics be made curricular; if some teacher constantly intrudes with pedantic rules and criticisms; and if the natural social pleasures between players are frowned upon as frivolous because they do not advance the technical excellence of the production-in a word, if the experience becomes one more school task for credits or marks or honor points, the teacher may expect that this first will also be the last Galsworthy literature perused by the average high school thespian.6 The possible future of leisure-time pupil activities may be helpSUnless he becomes a lawbreaker, mentally incompetent, or actively or passively surrenders his freedom to others. To avoid these disasters is the first purpose of tax-supported schools. As conducted at present, then, most extra-curricular activities in public schools actually circumvent the primary purposes of education, and at least justify those who blame the schools for the immaturity (in the best sense of the term) of modern youth. 6 The pupil's interest in dramatics may persist in spite of his unhappy experiences, as it often does persist in spite of the discouraging (if wholly innocent) tactics of the teachers of athletics, journalism, and other fascinating human activities. EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES12 127 fully pictured in graphical form. Two alternatives are shown in Chart VII. On the left hand the traditional formal discipline theory is illustrated in which teachers and parents retain as continuous and complete control as possible over children under their supervision. Under the formal discipline policy many teachers and parents now direct and control all the activities of children which they can lay their hands on. On the right hand is pictured the school and extra-school situation in which teachers, and other adults place pupils on their own responsibilities as early as possible and as completely as possible compatible with the welfare of the children. In the first set of graphs Type B activities are non-existent, all having been reduced to curricular activities by interfering teachers and principals. Type C activities, over which the school has no direct influence, provide the only experiences in self-determination. But these are curtailed by interfering adults, although at maturity they are practically the only ones which individuals will experience. In the second set of graphs, Type B activities are "introduced even in the first grade, leading naturally to Type C and Type A activities. As the child progresses through school he is given more and more responsibility of the most developmental kind, that is, Type B activity, in which he chooses, plans, executes, and judges for himself irrespective of the school curriculum, but under the eyes of teachers who are eager for him to acquire power to fly alone and are trained to help him learn. Thus, when the pupil is 14 years of age, Type B activities supplement Type A and prepare for Type C, until, finally, at 21 years of age the individual is in full control of his own life; still assisted, however, by some school connections and by parental and other adult aid. From one point of view the future of extra -curricular activities is clear: the great majority of school children will escape from both school and parental direction and control (Type B and Type A) before they reach legal majority, entering into almost exclusively independent and Type C extra-cuirricular lives, in which they must depend almost wholly on their own choices, plans, and judgments. From another point of view, however, the future of extra-curricular activities is still uncertain. Parents are more and more relinquishing their controlling powers, and Type C activities are the rule among American adolescents. But school teachers, while training pupils for these responsibilities by giving some opportunities for self-direction in school, are clouding these experiences by forcing 128 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS into the school lives of growing children more and more teacher supervision and control. Thus Type B activities are being reduced to curricular activities, while each year an increasing number of private agencies attempt to gain control of adolescent children's time and behavior, thus once more reducing Type C to Type A activities in which pupils become servants of their elders, if not intelligent robots. Both of these tendencies-that of teachers to -control all school life, and that of adults to direct all non-school life of childrenthreaten the future powers of the race to determine its own destinies. The greatest hope of society lies in education; in the steadily increased incorporation of pupil-projects in school life. In the curricular phases of this development teachers must always direct and control, but in the extra- curricular phases pupils must be made free to choose for themselves, and be made fully responsible for planning, executing, and judging for themselves. Conclusion The last two chapters of this book constitute an attempt to clarify the functions of school officers in the presence of those extracurricular activities which pupils are pleased to initiate and conduct in the school environment. Specifically, they form a helpful background against which to project present-day practices in interschool games and sports, for the latter constitute at once the most popular extra -curricular programs in secondary schools and colleges and the clearest examples of adult direction and control of schoolboys' leisure-time activities. Whoever attempts to differentiate between curricular and extracurricular pupil activities must perceive that the former must be directed by teachers, and the latter by pupils, and whoever makes this distinction must realize that it is more harmful to pupils to subject them to teacher control in extra -curricular activities than to subject teachers to pupil control in curricular activities. In a sense the two types of living are' as different as east and west. The most competent teachers will constantly strive to make pupils virtually self-directing and self- controlling even in curricular activities. But not until schools dispense with curricula and teachers content themselves with "advising" children who are, nevertheless, wholly independent of their control, can the two types of pupil activity actually merge as they sometimes do in inde EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES19 129 pendent research work by graduate students in the best universities and under the most competent professors. To-day interscholastic athletics provide, in most American schools and colleges, the best example of harmful adult interference in schoolboy leisure-time activities, and an example of increasing interference and greater harm year after year. The present highly organized systems of leagues, associations, and championships are almost invariably controlled by non-players whose interests are for protection of players occasionally, mutual gain often, and utilization frequently of pupil players for wholly selfish adult motives almost irrespective of the interests of players. To reveal how destructive these, situations are, and how desirable are pupilcontrolled activities, has been the burden of the discourse throught this volume. Fortunately for pupils a turning-point is in sight in' interscholastic athletics, but the future is not so certain in the field of intramural games and sports, or in extra -school-hour dramatics, journalism, music, and handcraft. Must they, too, suffer 'the crippling effects of school officer domination? Must they, too, provide opportunities for school administrators to require teachers to extend the school day so that it includes every moment of pupils' time on school property? Must they, too, be yoked to the pedagogue's star of lifeless scholarship? Must they, too, serve the selfish interests of ambitious coaches? Even to-day there are champion spellers, champion bands, champion public speakers, and champion debaters, all of whom have been paced and driven and curried for the public stage by coaches, directors, and intellectual acrobats who function, usually, in response to orders from principals or supervisors. These coaches are either unaware of the tremendous values inherent in true extra- curricular, that is, pupil-directed and pupil- controlled, activities or they care more for the advertisement of their own cleverness or for the advertisement of their departments or schools than for the physical, mental, or social development of their pupils. Teachers are not to be blamed for falling into error. Indeed, they.have been led into it by a growing, though pernicious, tradition, and even by the orders of their administrators and the advice of their university instructors. Nor are even these agents of social progress to be severely taken to task, for the present confusion is due to the overthrow of a traditional curriculum (which was based 130 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS on a pedagogical theory of formal discipline and an almost pathetic belief in the perpetuity of truth and the omnipotence of facts) coupled with increased leisure for pupils and the discovery of the educational importance of self-chosen leisure-time activities. Moreover, in defining extra- curricular activities as those not under teacher control, and in insisting that teachers must abstain from exercising direction and control therein for the sake of pupildevelopment, another and greater problem is raised concerning the proper extent of curricular activities themselves. The solution of this greater problem is beyond the scope of this volume. All that can be stated with assurance, and which may be explained by the principles outlined in the pages of this book, is that teachers ought not to extend their directing and controlling influences beyond the limits of the official school day, except in so far as is necessary to save the physical and social health of pupils from serious harm, school property from too-rapid deterioration, and the school name from disrepute. A spirit with any honor will not live except in its own way. -SANTAYANA APPENDIX A CONSTITUTION FOR AN INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION I. Name County Athletic League (Association) II. Purposes 1. To promote interest and activity in the most healthful and recreative games and sports, between individuals and teams representing the member schools of this League. 2. To aid schools and players in arranging playing schedules, and in finding suitable playing fields, courts, and competent officials. 3. To assist in securing for teams engaged in interschool contests, immunity from non-player interference. 4. To discover and utilize the best means of equalizing the playing abilities of competing teams. 5. To protect the physical welfare of players from unnecessary hazards. III. Membership 1. Any public or private senior or four-year high school approved by the majority of the member schools, and within the district bounded by the following lines, may become a member of this League. a. All of X county, except the city of Y. 2. Membership may be secured by the presentation of a request from the school student body with the approval of its principal, to the SecretaryTreasurer of this League. The request shall include the following: a. A statement to the effect that the constitution and by-laws of the League have been read by the school principal, director of physical education, and all athletic coaches, and have been read to the student body, and posted on the school bulletin board. b. A statement to the effect that all school officials and pupils will abide by the constitution and by-laws in all contests scheduled or conducted by the League. c. These statements must be signed by the principal, and by the president and secretary of the student body organization. 3. The League Secretary-Treasurer shall notify all member schools of the receipt of petitions for membership at least one week before the next regular meeting, and shall invite representatives of the petitioning school 131 132 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS or schools to attend this meeting and formally present their request for membership. a. Petitions for membership shall be acted on by the League at the next regular meeting after petitions are received and member schools are notified thereof. 4. After the acceptance to membership of any new school, the League Secretary-Treasurer shall notify its student body president and principal; after which the new member school shall forward to him its first year's dues. a. School membership shall be continuous until notice of withdrawal is served on the League Secretary-Treasurer. b. Dues are payable before November 1 of each year. c. Member schools in arrears on November 1 shall be so notified by the League Secretary-Treasurer. 5. Any school may be suspended for any length of time for any reason by a majority vote in any regular meeting; provided the offending school has been given at least one week's notice of the impending action, and has been given a reasonable opportunity to plead its case in open session of a regular meeting. IV. Organization 1. The governing body of this League shall be called the Board of Governors., and shall consist of the following officers and members: a. A Secretary-Treasurer, who shall be elected annually from its membership by a majority vote of the Senate. (1) The Secretary-Treasurer may appoint a temporary alternate at any time, who shall enjoy all the privileges of his office; the SecretaryTreasurer, however, shall be held responsible for all the alternate's actions., (2) The Secretary-Treasurer shall act as President of the Senate. b. A Senate, composed of one member of the educational staff of each member school. (1) Members of the Senate shall be, or be appointed by, the principals of member schools. (2) They shall serve at the pleasure of the appointing agents. (3) The school principal in each case shall be held responsible for all his appointees' actions. c. A House of Representatives., composed of two pupils from each member school. (1) Pupil representatives shall be chosen from their student bodies by any method they prescribe and which is approved by the school principal. (2) One representative from each school shall be chosen from the senior class; the other shall be from a lower grade. (3) Representatives shall be chosen during September of each year. They shall serve for the current academic year, but may be recalled at any time according to the provisions of their local student body constitution. APPENDIX 133 (4) Only pupils active in interschool sports shall be eligible for membership in the House of Representatives. 2. The Board of Governors shall function as follows: a. Meetings shall be called by the Secretary-Treasurer. (1) He shall call three regular meetings annually, on dates and at places prescribed by the Board at its preceding meeting. (2) He shall call special meetings as ordered by the Chairman of the Board with the written approval of the majority of the Senate. (3) Notification shall be sent in writing at least ten days before the date of each meeting. b. At the first regular meeting, following the election of new Representatives and after all other business has been finished,A new Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Board shall be chosen. (1) The retiring Chairman should preside during this meeting. In the event that he cannot be present the President of the Senate shall preside. (2) Both Chairman and Vice-Chairman shall be members of the House of Representatives. (3) They shall serve for one year, but may be re-elected. (4) The election shall be by secret ballot. Each member of the Board shall be entitled to one vote on each ballot; a simple majority of votes shall elect regardless of the status of the voters. (5) Nominations shall be by secret ballot. (6) The retiring Chairman, if present, shall not vote. c. In all business each Senate member and e~ach House member shall be entitled to one vote on each motion. (1) The Chairman shall vote only to break a tie. (2) All voting, except for election of officers, shall be by roll call. d. The Chairman or Vice-Chairman shall preside over all meetings at which either of them is pre sent. (1) In the absence of both of these officers the President of the Senate shall preside. e. A majority of each House shall constitute a quorum for all business. J. Motions shall be passed by a majority vote of the members of each House present at' any meeting. (1) In case of disagreement between Houses, the motion shall automatically become "unfinished business" and shall be re-introduced at the next regular meeting. g. The constitution may be changed only by a two-thirds vote of each House. (1) Changes in the constitution shall be acted on at the next regular meeting after presentation to the Board. h. Roberts' Rules of Order shall prevail in all meetings. i. Either the Senate or the House may meet separately at any time. (1) The Senate or the House may transact any business delegated to it by the Board, but any actions taken by either of these bodies may be rescinded at any meeting of the Board. 134 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS (a) The Secretary-Treasurer, as President of the Senate, shall preside at Senate meetings. (b) The Chairman of the Board shall preside at all House meetings. In his absence the Vice-Chairman shall preside. 3. The functions of the Board of Governors shall be to carry out the purposes stated in Article II of the constitution. Specifically they are: a. To encourage schools, teams, and individuals to engage in interschool games and sports. b. To arrange playing schedules, and assist players to secure playing fields, officials, and equipment for games. c. To enact rules which will protect players from unnecessary physical injury and promote the most healthful conditions of play. d. To enact rules which will protect players in interschool contests from interference by non-players, during actual play and during all rest periods. e. To enact special rules for the conduct of games and sports. f.To enact rules which will insure a reasonable degree of equality between competing teams. g. To interpret and enforce all rules and regulations. (1) If action be necessary before its next regular meeting the Chairman and Secretary-Treasurer of the Board shall render the decision. (2) All interpretations made by these officials shall be submitted to the Board for ratification or modification as future policy. h. To suspend any school violating the League constitution or by-laws. i. To organize and conduct League meets, tournaments, playdays, and other athletic and social activities. j.To investigate all invitation tournaments to which member schools are eligible to send representatives, and recommend to member schools either acceptance or rejection of invitations thereto. k. In other ways to improve the conduct of games and sports and athletic relations between the schools who are members of the League. V. Finances 1. Fýunds for conducting Board of Governors' meetings and carrying out the policies and programs of the League shall be derived from the following sources: a. Annual dues, which shall be determined by the Board. b. Special levies on member schools. (1) Special levies may be made only with the consent of the majority of member school representatives in both Senate and House. (2) Special levies, when made, shall be apportioned upon member schools in the same ratio as their enrollments. c. The League shall not receive direct financial support from the receipts of games and tournaments. d. The Board shall not accept, for the League, gifts of any kind. 2. All monies due the Board of Governors shall. be.paid to the SecretaryTreasurer in the form of checks. APPENDIX 135 a. The Secretary-Treasurer shall accept and bank all checks, giving receipts therefor to member schools. 3. In the event of failure to pay annual dues or special levies for any number of years (the school's membership having lapsed as a consequence) any member school may be reinstated by making all payments for the current year. 4. Monies held by the Board of Governors shall be used to pay for: a. Stenographic services incident to the Board's business. b. Postage and stationery incident to the Board's business. c. The expenses of conducting any tournaments, playdays, etc., to which all member schools are invited. d. Other expenses authorized by the Board. 5. All accounts shall be payable on presentation to the Secretary-Treasurer, who shall secure authorization from the Board of Governors for each expenditure. a. Accounts shall be rendered in writing on forms provided by the Board. b. All accounts shall be paid by check. VI. General Regulations 1. To protect players' physical health the following regulations shall be observed in all events scheduled or sponsored by the League: a. Players and teams shall be matched in physical powers as equally as the League can provide. b. A physician shall be in attendance at every interschool contest. He shall be empowered to go upon the field at any time, remove any player, or stop any contest altogether. c. Playing limits shall prevail as follows: (1) In American Rugby football, four quarters of not over ten minutes each, with rest periods of one minute, fifteen minutes, and one minute. (2) In basketball, four quarters of not over eight minutes each, with rest periods of one minute, ten minutes, and one minute. (3) In tennis, three sets shall constitute a match. No player shall engage in more than two matches on any one day. (4) In golf, eighteen holes shall constitute a match. No player shall engage in more than two matches on any one day. d. In track and field meets, participants shall not engage in more than three events, of which not more than two may be races. e. The following events shall not be scheduled in any League competition: (1) The mile run for pupils under twenty years of age, chronologically. (2) The half-mile run for pupils under eighteen years of age, chronologically. (3) The quarter-mile run for pupils under sixteen years of age, chronologically. f. Extrinsic incentives shall not be provided by League action. In particular the following shall be taboo: (1) Money prizes. 136 THE FUTURE OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS (2) Mementos valued at over one dollar per player or team. Thus, a basketball memento shall not cost more than five dollars. (3) No trophies shall be awarded for League championships, nor shall the League arrange for or announce any championship. 2. To protect players' social and recreative welfare the following regulations shall be observed in all events scheduled or sponsored by the League: a. Avoidance of unfair competition. (1) Teams from schools with widely differing enrolments should not be permitted to meet unless there is sufficient evidence to guarantee that the physical powers of competitors will be reasonably equaL b. Avoidance of emphasis on the scores of contests, or of celebrating the triumph of individual players. 3. To protect players from outside (non-player) interference during interschool contests the following regulations shall be observed in all events scheduled or sponsored by the League: a. After the contest has begun, no coach or other non-player save the duly appointed officials governing the contest shall interfere with the contestants. b. This regulation must be interpreted as prohibiting sideline coaching by all non-players (this is now prohibited by rules in certain sports) and also as prohibiting substitutions, or coaching between halves or during any other rest periods, by any others than the contestants themselves. c. This regulation does not prohibit a coach or his representative or the official physician from ordering the withdrawal of any contestant at any time, or for any reason, but no contestant withdrawn by any nonplayer may return to the same contest. d. Coaches, physicians, substitutes, and all other non-players are enjoined to aid referees in preventing any non-player from interfering with the players' conduct of their own game. e. In interschool contests the following administrative adjustments are suggested: (1) Both teams, including only players in uniform, scorers, managers, trainers, coaches, physicians, and any others authorized by the director of physical education in charge of the local field, shall sit together on the side of the field chosen by the visitors. (Neither coaches nor other adults permitted to sit with players in uniform are required to do so. The best conditions will prevail when only players in uniform, substitutes in uniform, a trainer and the physician occupy space not open to any spectator). (2) Either coach or both coaches may act in the capacity of trainers in case of apparent exhaustion or injury during the game, when accompanied by a representative of the other team. At the end of the first half of such games as provide resting periods a physician should, and coaches may, be present at a common meeting place, provided by the physical director in charge of the local field, where members of both teams needing physical attention may be treated. APPENDIX 137 (3) When either coach desires to remove a player from the game such removal shall be effected either by reporting the player's name directly to the scorer, as in basketball, when the scorer shall stop the game in the regular way, or by an official messenger, as in baseball and football. The messenger, when he is employed, shall act for both teams, and shall report to the umpire the name of the player to be removed, after which the referee or umpire shall stop the game in the usual manner, and remove the designated player from the game. The substitute shall in all cases be chosen by the acting captain on the field. (4) Only such referees and other officials as' are in sympathy 'with.these adjustments should be permitted to officiate. 4. To protect member schools and principals from League actions which may interfere with local policies, the following regulations shall prevail: a. No member school shall be bound by any schedule of game assignments made by others than its own officers. League schedules are thus aids rather than commands to engage in contests. When engaged in nonLeague contests, member schools are not bound to observe any rules of the League. b. While not organizing or conducting any championship tournaments itself, the League shall not prevent any of its member schools from attending invitation tournaments of any description, nor shall it prevent its members from arranging for and playing any contests with any teams. c. The League shall not pass any eligibility rules restricting member schools in the selection of representative players. This regulation invalidates the legality of any scholarship requirements, amateur requirements, or attendance requirements other than those imposed by the principal and student body of each school on its own players. (1) This regulation does not apply to positive measures used to equalize the playing powers of competitors, such as weight restrictions, strength scores, and skill ratings. (2) The intent of this regulation is to protect the supremacy of each principal in determining his own eligibility requirements and game assignments. (3) The implication of this regulation is that principals and student bodies are more interested in providing stimulating and satisfying games and sports for pupils than in using pupils to secure notoriety for individuals, teams, schools, or communities which may be attached to victories and defeats. (4) An essential prerequisite to the greatest success in providing healthful, recreative, or developmental games and sports for pupils under this regulation is unceasing research in discovering, and impeccable rectitude in administering, the best methods of equalizing the playing powers of competing teams.