Erica McLean came and spoke with our class the other day and it was a fantastic conversation. Erica certainly has a lot going on and a lot on her plate in addition to recently being a School Board trustee elect. What caught my attention most with Erica’s discussion with us was her involvement in sports education and this is a topic I too am quite passionate about. As I reflect more and more on the conversation, she had with us I find more and more ways I relate to her and the way she goes about education and life. I to grew up in a small Northern town quite close to where Erica grew up and sport is what kept kids out of trouble in the smaller town. Sport gives you a purpose, it instills discipline and the love of something in myself and I am sure many others who participated in sport. I personally went to post-secondary school because of the sport I play, I decided to get into the education program because of the sport I played and the experiences I had in it. Erica seems to have done or be doing what I hope to do as a teacher and that is to get our students in our schools more involved with school and community sports. It may be a bit dramatic, but I will genuinely go to my grave with the belief that sport can save a kid. Sport is an unreal outlet for the laundry list of struggles that kids can face, it helps you make friendships and build connections with others, sport teaches you discipline and respect, a sport will build character in a person. I appreciated Erica coming in to chat with us because she opened my eyes to resources out there for our schools to implement sports and I foresee myself in the future definitely tracking her down to get more involved with promoting sport in school and fulfilling my personal big dreams to implement sport more into elementary schools.
