Story Power
January 12, 2015
I spend time every day surfing the MHSAA’s family of websites – MHSAA.com, Second Half and MHSAA.tv. My counterpart in another state was astounded that I do this, and incredulous that I could find the time to do this. But it makes perfect sense to me.
More people visit our websites on a typical day than visit our office in East Lansing during an entire year. We have more visitors to our websites during a typical month than attend all of our postseason tournaments combined during a typical year.
We have more opportunity to make first impressions through electronic entry than tournament turnstiles; and for the large majority of people who make contact with the MHSAA, electronic media may provide the only impression they will ever get of the MHSAA.
This is why we have styled the MHSAA’s websites in a manner that is visually pleasing and easy to navigate on both desktop and mobile devices. And this is why we have stuffed these websites not only with schedules, scores and stats but also with stories; and it’s why the stories are presented in text, audio, pictures and video streaming.
We know that those who share the stories of school sports most effectively will shape the message of school sports most persuasively.
Our job is not merely regulation of school sports, but communication about school sports – not merely event management, but content management – managing the message and meaning of school-sponsored sports.
Fixing Schools
August 16, 2013
Our fall sports have begun and, as usual, our good coaches are focusing on fundamentals during these early weeks of practice and play, especially if they are trying to bounce back from some losing seasons. Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking about the fundamentals for fixing schools themselves.
If we really would get serious about a comeback season, we would . . .
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Equip the best teachers to work in the worst places.
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Provide the highest pay to the teachers working in the lowest grades.
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Emphasize teachers more than technology,pre-Kindergarten more than college prep, andsmaller more than larger.
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Encourage fight over flight,tutors over transfers,school improvement over school choice, andinvestment over vouchers.
- And, for Pete’s sake, we would allow public schools to start classes as early as they see fit, even next Monday, not two weeks and a day later as state law mandates. Longer is better than shorter.
And sooner is better than later for putting these fundamentals into our game plan for education.