Helping girls get ahead in life

The New York Times today had an interesting article -- a portion of which is quoted here:

QUOTE
Girls who play interscholastic high school sports are 41 percent more likely to graduate from college than their counterparts, according to a study in the June issue of the journal Youth & Society — in time for the 25th anniversary of Title IX. For her master’s thesis at Brigham Young, Kelly P. Troutman looked at 5,000 girls in the National Education Longitudinal Study, high school class of ’92. The athletes had the advantage of “social capital,” she says — a network invested in their success, mentor coaches and all those parents in the stands sharing college info.
END QUOTE

That said, it certainly looks as though, if one is interested in helping young females in a church, one of the more important things we can do is to help them develop sports skills that will enable them to make the team in high school.

Furthermore, since 41% is such a big number as statistical studies go, there is little doubt that parents will take note of it -- big time -- as this news is propagated, especially beyond the grey confines of the Times.

What will parents do when they see it? The answer is pretty obvious, given what we already know about today's parents in America. They will try to improve their daughters' chances of making the team in high school.

How will they do this? They will ensure that they are taught sports -- sports for which there are teams in their daughters' prospective high schools. Their daughters will be encouraged to play on club teams, elementary school teams, recreational teams -- and church teams.

Where will the time for all this additional sport come from, given the extent to which kids are already over-programmed? This answer is simple: it will come from wherever there is no discernible payback. Too frequently, church and Sunday School will be perceived to fall in the "no discernible payback" category by these parents. (Free play time, to the extent to which kids have any of this scarce commodity left, will be an additional casualty.)

Few churches will be able to suck in and respond by filling the demand. Most will whine, complain, and generally badmouth sports, as so many already do. Others will respond -- or continue to respond -- by going on the offensive, attempting to punish sports that infringe on what they perceive as their turf with regard to young people. Almost without exception, of course, churches view Sunday morning as "their turf".

Churches that have an interest in survival will incorporate sports in their programs for young people, and will learn to make use of Sunday mornings as the ideal time to combine sports with worship and learning -- on THEIR turf.

41% is indeed a big number.