Curriculum

Including Addressing Racism, Misogyny and Homophobia

“We often assume that all teachers within a discipline address the same curriculum. This isn’t always the case. We frequently find gaps between goals and what is actually taught, and these gaps can have a lasting impact on a child’s learning.” – Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs

In keeping with the 1903 model of high school sports teams, there is no curriculum for athletics, therefore there are no specific goals for coaches, let alone gaps in what is actually taught. Coaches are left rudderless, and therefore, players have uneven experiences within the same school as there are as many educational products as there are coaches.

For reasons stated in this website, athletic departments should establish a curriculum with non sport-specific threads that run through all teams in that district. Coaches will be evaluated upon the seriousness with which they approach the curriculum and how well they are able to model the skills, understanding that change takes time.

We already know that negative cultures cannot thrive in a positive, can-do environment so introduction of the skill of creating those environments would be the common goal for both students and coach.

A curriculum would bring clear outcomes that reflect the science-based skills necessary to achieve found in sport psychology, social-emotional learning, and positive psychology. It would also specifically give guidance to coaches on how to address multiculturalism, racism, misogyny and homophobia in a team setting.