Are you grooming your kids to be an Athlete or a Scholar?

By: The Fabulous Mariah HuQ

Little League football, basketball, baseball and soccer are all great sports. Most kids play at least one of them at some point in their lives. Maybe not on the actual field, but at least on a video game. lol We as parents push our children to be active, and we should. Not only is sports a good source of exercise, but it teaches them discipline and how to be a great team player. Now, truth is if they really excel they can land a college scholarship or even go pro one day right? 

It is quite evident that we as a society are fanatics when it comes to pushing our kids to excel on the field. The disappointment is that we don't have the same level of excitement and energy when it comes to academics.  When is the last time your child participated in a spelling bee, an academic groups like science or math clubs? Now I'm not saying that every parent is guilty of this, because for the most part we all want our children to excel. I just think that we should devote the same amount of dedication if not more to them actually landing an academic "scholar"ship over a free ride for basketball.  

Many will say what does it matter, as long as they go to college and their tuition is waved? I say oh it matters a great deal. When our kids get a "free ride" to college for sports many times it's just that a free ride. The expectation is for them to pass their classes but to be passionate and dedicated to the sport that landed them there in the first place. While a true scholarship recipient, is expected to be a young savvy sophisticate that excels in academics. I realized that our society promotes athletics over academics in the way Rhodes Scholar Myron Rolle was treated by the media.

"How do you feel about abandoning your team" was one of the disgraceful questions Rolle was asked... Really? Him leaving Florida State football team to go to Oxford as the recipient of one of the world’s most prestigious post graduate honors "The Rhodes Scholarship" is looked at as him abandoning his team? If so, this says a lot about our expectations of today's youth, which are supposed to be tomorrow’s leaders. I think Rolle's dedication both on and especially off the field is amazing...

His desire to be a Neurosurgeon and still play professional football is a perfect example of how we should groom our kids. We should develop them to be multi-talented and always have a backup plan. We should teach them that a mind is a terrible thing to waste, so they should always strive for intellectual excellence. After reading the stories on Rolle and watching his interviews I was truly touched. What's evident to me is  that this young man has a good head on his shoulders, strong foundation and solid support system.  I automatically knew that he definitely has the kind of parents that groomed him to be a Scholar first and an Athlete second!

His story was a great reminder that educating and empowering our kids is the most Fabulous thing we can ever do. That’s the only form of fabulousity that you don't have to be frugal with...lol