The St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series in 1982 over the Milwaukee Brewers. In my opinion, they should have also won the Series in 1985 and in 1987, but they lost each in seven games.
There were some very good Cardinal teams in those days. You may remember that they won a lot of games by stealing bases with blazing team speed.
It was exciting to watch them on defense and on the base paths.
The Cardinals don't steal bases like that today. For that matter, no team does.
But what if they tried to recapture the philosophy of stealing bases in St. Louis today?
Suppose St. Louis manager Mike Matheny announced, "We are going to return to the speed game that made the Cardinals so successful in the 1980s. We are going to steal every time we get on base and we aren't going to let up. The other team had better be ready. We are always going to be in scoring position. It worked in the 1980s and it will work now."
I'll tell you what would happen. The Cardinals would soon be looking for his replacement.
Why?
Baseball is still baseball isn't it? It doesn't matter if it is played in the 1940s, the 1980s, or now. You still have to pitch, hit, run, play defense, and steal.
But it's not that simple.
The truth is, while baseball is still baseball and the overall philosophy is still much the same, teams cannot steal bases like they did back then.
The game has changed somewhat. Stadiums are smaller and with more home runs no one needs to steal as much. Catchers have pretty good arms and players get caught stealing more. Many playing fields are now grass instead of a faster artificial surface.
So while baseball is still baseball, teams have had to adapt over the years. The same can be said for professional football or other sports.
And the same can be said for schools.
Have you ever heard that what we did in schools in the 1980s worked fine then and will work fine now?
I have. But it's not that simple in education either.
Students are still students, parents are still parents, and teachers are still teachers. But our society has changed drastically and today we deal with cultural issues that were not nearly as common then.
We read a lot and hear a lot about the breakdown of the traditional American family. That breakdown tends to complicate a young person's life and can influence how he or she interacts with other adults. And that's just one issue. We also have more widespread instances of poverty, illiteracy, drug-use, teen pregnancies, abortion, child abuse, sexual assault, mental illness and family violence.
We can't create student learning opportunities based upon the assumption that every student comes from a home that looks like the one that Wally and Beaver lived in on "Leave it to Beaver."
It's not reality. Educators are still called upon to teach but in recent decades the game has changed in education just as the game has changed in baseball and in all of society.
This doesn't mean that all the basics should be thrown out. Nor does it mean that a strategy that worked 30 years ago will not work now.
It just means simply that professional educators have to adjust with changes the same way people in every profession do.
The good old values of honesty, discipline and hard work will always pay off, but we need to rethink how we prepare the younger generations for their future.
They have grown up in a different world and will face a future that is different from anything any of us have seen.
We can't just steal bases like it was 1985. Some strategies have to change.
David Wilson, EdD, is the associate principal at Jefferson City High School. You may email him at [email protected].