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Health & Fitness

Bethesda Magazine Worth a Read

The September/October issue of Bethesda Magazine—full of interesting education-related articles—is worthy of the newsstand price of $3.95.

So, on the Saturday that Hurricane Irene was headed for our region, I was standing in a grocery line and the September/October issue of Bethesda Magazine caught my eye. With predicted downtime on my hands, I purchased a copy. I’m glad I did. The school related articles were worth the $3.95 newsstand price.

The cover story, “A Sporting Solution,” is about Montgomery County Public Schools high school sports and how much extra money is raised by booster clubs to pay for stuff not covered by the normal MCPS sports budget. Not surprisingly, booster clubs in affluent areas of the county—think Bethesda’s —raise more cash than booster clubs in less affluent areas of the county—think Wheaton’s .

“A Sporting Solution,” however, lacks solutions. Not one person was asked how they might “fix” the inequities. Are there solutions? Why not “tax” the affluent booster clubs. Tax them 15 percent on every dollar collected. The funds collected from the “tax” could be pooled and divided amongst the less affluent booster clubs. Such a tax would not stop the Whitman booster club from eagerly raising funds, and it might even provide a sense of community togetherness.

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Right after the above cover story, there are two somewhat related stories—one titled “Turf Wars” and the other titled “Private Playgrounds.” 

“Turf Wars” is about MCPS’s move to install more artificial turf fields. “Private Playgrounds” takes a look at how area private schools invest in sports facilities, including installing AT fields. After reading these pieces, I wished the writers had done more to compare spending. I have nothing against AT fields, but I’m curious if the publics and privates are getting similar deals on AT fields. And then there was a claim made in the “Turf Wars” that AT fields produce fewer injuries than grass fields. The piece, however, provides no injury data at all. It would be nice to see data.

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Finally, there is a really interesting piece titled “Underachievers.” Who knew that there were underachievers in Bethesda? And then there’s a profile piece on Joshua Starr, “The Starr Report.”

In it, Starr says: “I’d rather have my children by great people and average students than great students and average people."

I have to confess that this Starr quote—which I have seen in other places—is starting to make me scratch my head. Wouldn’t the wise parent want their child to be both a great person and a great student? Although—not to burst any bubbles here—but in the game called life, don’t we all (99.7 percent of us) just end up being ordinary people?

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