Keeping skaters in school

Growing up, “keep your priorities straight” was one of my mom’s favorite sayings. As a kid I never quite understood what she meant by this, but when I grew up I came to realize the importance behind this philosophy.

For a young skater it can become very easy to get seduced by the “dream.” Many believe that winning is all that matters, and all sacrifices seem insignificant. In addition, those involved in the sport–coaches, judges, other parents, and skaters–will tell a young, up-and-coming athlete what they “need” in order to make this skating dream come true. Some of this advice is good, but some of it is not so good.

When I was 13, I had to make an important choice. I was quickly progressing through the skating ranks, and I had decided to move to Cape Cod to live and train during the week. This meant living away from my family and working with two highly acclaimed coaches. In conjunction with the move, the idea of homeschooling, a very popular way of achieving an education in the skating world, was raised to me and my mom. Immediately my mom shot down the idea. She felt that there was no need for me to forgo a public education. We believed that the benefits of keeping me in school would outweigh any potential risks associated with spending the majority of my day in the classroom instead of on the ice.

What a public education brings to a skater is a social community outside of the sport. All too often I’ve witnessed skaters who are homeschooled miss out on what is so important to the development of a child. School dances, pep rallies, and science projects don’t need to be sacrificed in order to achieve the skating dream. Not only are these activities fun, but they provide a great venue to develop relationships outside of the sport.

When a skater’s primary focus is their skating career, they can lose sight of the other facets of life, which can bring them great joy and balance. A skater who attends school is given an opportunity to see that being a good skater doesn’t necessarily make them special in their peers’ eyes. Classmates may think their accomplishments on the ice are “cool,” but it doesn’t make them any “better” than them, helping to keep a skater’s priorities straight.

There is a common misconception that in order to excel in skating a young athlete has to spend countless hours in an ice rink per day. Many believe skating should be a person’s main focus, and the more time on the ice, the quicker a skater will succeed. This is a dangerous ideology because not only does too much time on the ice result in injuries, but it can also result in a burnout. Skating should be fun, but when it’s the sole focus for a child it becomes a job. School helps to balance this and provides another world for a skater when their career ends. It’s important to remember that skating is a very small part of life. Ninety-nine percent of skaters are done competing by the age of 25.

There were times in my career when I became frustrated that I wasn’t homeschooled like the majority of my competitors. It wasn’t always fun having to get up early for school in the mornings or work on an English paper during a competition. But overall, I really enjoyed the balance that being a student and a skater gave me. I had two sets of friends: school friends and skating friends. If I didn’t do well at a competition and I was upset with my perceived inability to “deliver” when it counted, I would return home to a math test, which gave me an opportunity to redeem myself. My friends at school knew me as “the skater,” but the topic of figure skating rarely came up in our cafeteria conversations. Although some teachers enjoyed showing tapes of my skating performances to the class, they always held me accountable to hand in my missed work when I returned from a competition.

I’ve heard those who champion homeschooling tell parents that the majority of schools aren’t flexible with a skater’s schedule. This isn’t the case. I attended four schools in four different school districts during my skating career. Each district was incredibly accommodating to my skating needs. I was allowed to leave class for competitions, my teachers gave me my work ahead of time, and despite some difficulties–like having to take my SATs just hours before embarking on a trip to Germany to compete in a Grand Prix event–I managed to balance the two quite well.

I get nervous when I see these “rink rats” spending countless hours on the ice every day. I worry about the social activities that they are missing out on by choosing the ice over the classroom. Spending an extra two hours on the ice isn’t going to make or break a skater’s career. When skating is a person’s sole focus, it can become hard for them to keep their priorities straight and see that skating shouldn’t be the most important thing in their young world.

I remember in the ‘90s there was a shirt that was popular amongst those in the skating world. On it was the phrase: “Skating is life. The rest is just details.” It reality, it’s the other way around. Skating is not life. It’s a wonderful sport and can be someone’s intense passion and eventual career, but it’s imperative that parents understand the emphasis for a child should be on a balance between skating and other activities in their life–like school. While winning a gold medal at regionals is great, going to the prom with your high school sweetheart and giving a speech in front of your history class can be pretty great too. I don’t think a skater should have to sacrifice one for the other.