Academic Gamesmanship
Oct0
In the end, it simply wasn’t to be. To the much regret and sorrow of casual observers and well-intentioned acquaintances, the passing of the English summer has been greeted with the muted, anti-climactic sigh. It is remiscent of the deep-rooted anguish that accompanied the failure of Las Ketchup to compose a follow-up in a similar ilk to that of 2002’s seminal ‘Ketchup Song‘. But, while we can almost comprehend the Spanish popster’s lack of an Ivor Novello award, perhaps Glamorgan’s eventual misfortune in pursuit of promotion to LV= County Championship Division One is not equitable in terms?
The end of the 2009 season has come around as quick as the beginning. Amid the broken pseudo-promises of barbecue summers and unbridled drama of this year’s Ashes series, the Welsh dragon was awoken from its extended slumber. Leading from the front, it was arguably beyond the wildest optimist to believe that Jamie Dalrymple could have coerced his troops into a position whereby they would be fighting for promotion at the final skirmish of the battle. The odds were stacked against the Dragons after the near-misses against Essex and Gloucestershire, but it was still possible.
As it came to pass, Northamptonshire’s demolition of Leicestershire ended Glamorgan’s hopes before Essex pulled off a stunning victory at rivals Derbyshire to secure the last promotion berth alongside Kent. But that did not stop the Dragons having one final swansong of the summer against Surrey at The Oval. Having conceded 430 in what appeared a batting friendly track (how the Aussies would have relished it), the Dragons hit back hard. Think of a Batman film loaded with animated onomatopoeias.
THWACK – Gareth Rees – c Batty b Logan – 154
KABLAMMO – Mark Cosgrove – run out – 175
CRIKEY! – Jim Allenby – b Herath – 137
BISH BASH BOSH – Mark Wallace – lbw b Herath – 139
WAAAAAAAAAAAA – 702/8d at 4.83 runs per over
An opening partnership of 315; a club-record partnership for any wicket against Surrey was backed up by a sixth wicket partnership of 240; a new Glamorgan record partnership for a sixth wicket beating the 230 put on by Willie Jones and Len Muncer at Worcester in 1953. Alas, Dalrymple’s declaration came just 16 shy of the county’s all-time record of 718-3 v Sussex at Colwyn Bay in 2000. That innings came in at 4.4 runs per over – fast enough?
The game may well have petered out into a draw, but it was purely academic at that stage. And there was still yet attention required for a final Pro40 match against Derbyshire. Limited overs cricket has been poorly executed by the Dragons at the best of times over the course of the 2009 season, but Tom Maynard again underlined his credentials with a match-winning performance to secure a five wicket win. Strangely, the club’s two wins was enough to finish with three teams below them in the last ever Pro40 table.
In terms of the LV= County Championship, there are a number of factors that Glamorgan Dragons could point to as to why promotion eventually proved so elusive. Rain interruptions over the months were countless if not ruddy annoying, while equal blame can be attached to bad luck, running out of time, and Danish Kaneria’s gamesmanship at Cardiff. His absence next season could see Essex coming straight back down, but that’s for the cricketing gods to decide. Meanwhile, the presence of Sussex could present a stiff task but there is no reason why the Dragons cannot consolidate and push on in 2010 to bigger and better things. The players are gelling nicely and Matthew Maynard has got the squad to a place where a nice little nucleus has been established. It’s now a matter of finalising the ins and the outs.
Mark Cosgrove will definitely return as an overseas player; the future of Garnett Kruger unresolved. But it could be the unfortunate case that Simon Jones does not return, with Hampshire lurking in the shadows like a 1920s vagabond. Where’s Sean Connery and Kevin Costner when you need them…
23-26 September @ The Brit Oval, London
Liverpool Victoria County Championship Division Two
Surrey 430 and 309-7
Glamorgan 702-8
Match drawn
14 September @ County Ground, Derby
Pro40 Division Two
Derbyshire 214-9 (40)
Glamorgan 215-5 (38.5)
Glamorgan win by 5 wickets
Though I am a conservative, it is beyond me how we ever thought that allowing each state to set its own educational standards–especially with the clear result being that many states seriously underperformed–was a good idea.
Certainly, each state should have input. However, this should be in that “elective” area that is outside the national standards, and should be complementary to the national standards.
As for English teachers not being prepared to teach students to read from, say, a Biology text, that seems to be a form of “unionization” that seeks to specialize English as some department that knows nothing beyond Shakespeare. Very simply, students who have learned to read critically–an element of English instruction–can usually wade through just about any text written in English, putting this together with that, following the logic, etc.
My son, in kindergarten, can multiply by 0, 1, and 10…and yet the “math” he is learning is surely limiting his progress (e.g., “color the big boxes red; the small boxes blue). There has to be a way to escape the limitations within each grade level. A 3rd grader who reads at a 6th grade level will wither in a class that is limited to reading 3rd grade books. Surely we can come up with regular tests that can allow us to put a single student in, say, 1st grade math, 4th grade reading, 5th grade science, and so forth, as needed, rather than go for the lowest common denominator approach.
Another issue I have is that we typically require a foreign language for graduation. But when is the very best time to teach a foreign language? From all my reading, it appears to be “the earlier, the better.” So why aren’t kids in kindergarten at least getting a foundational level of, say, Spanish? The next year would build on that, and so forth. Otherwise, we risk our students cramming for a high school course in a foreign langauge…then promptly forgetting it some months later.
Before my son was old enough for school, I downloaded Florida’s educational requirements for each grade level. I not only focused on preparing him for kindergarten, but I “scanned” ahead to find any standards that I could teach him now. He now knows that light is the fastest thing in the universe, how the water cycle works, what plants need to live (air, water, food, space, and light), etc. It’s not that he’ll need these things in kindergarten, but that surely it will make things easier when he actually encounters these things for the first time.
At the same time, why can’t kids be taught to “memorize” the muliplication tables from early on? They don’t have to yet understand it, it seems, for it to be useful to them when the time comes. That could take, literally, months or years off the learning curve if they could learn the basics of multiplication and quickly leverage their knowledge of the tables to bypass months of rote drilling.
For that matter, why not teach the Periodic Table and other “memorize-able” tables or facts early on, laying a foundation for accelerated future learning?
I have learned one thing, though…. The schools DO have a plan that works at teaching our children. Some schools do far better than others, of course, but although I have been very involved in my son’s education, teaching him what I can, I also see that he is learning things in kindergarten that I likely would have overlooked, felt less important, or thought too much for him. It is TOGETHER, the schools and dedicated parents, that our children will get a good education. It is an equation. Teachers + Dedicated Parents = Well-Educated Children.
— AaronS