January 25, 2002, Cambridge, MA: Hockey Dad Gets 6 to 10 Years for Fatal Beating. Massachusetts judge sentenced Thomas Junta to six to 10 years in state prison for the beating death of Michael Costin, 40, in a fight after a youth hockey practice in which the sons of both men participated for what they considered to be “rough play.”
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/LAW/01/25/hockey.death.verdict/index.html
July 24, 2007, Toronto, Canada: Irate Soccer Mom Brings Game to Screeching Halt. A referee is accosted, a supporter punched, a police officer – who tries to intervene – scratched. Arrests are made and an embarrassed team is withdrawn from the tournament… took place at an “under-8″ match for boys in Pickering on the weekend. The referee? A 14-year-old girl. Now, an irate soccer mom who disagreed with the girl’s officiating faces assault charges.
http://www.thestar.com/gta/article/239062
You many have seen one of these headlines before because they appear every day in our local news. Clearly the message in youth sports which used to emphasize teamwork- has dramatically shifted to individual focus. If children aren’t learning teamwork on the ballfield, where are they learning to develop such a critical interpersonal skillset such as leadership, communication, problem solving, and teamwork?
If children don’t have the opportunity to learn these skills in the traditional environments in the way that we would think, then where are they learned? Do you think that these skills are taught in elementary education? The No Child Left Behind Act dramatically shifted the focus within the classroom. Any schoolteacher would admit that the landscape of the elementary classroom has shifted dramatically, requiring teachers to specifically hit key learning points in each school year that will be covered on a standardized state exam. This emphasis of “teaching to the test” leaves little time for classroom development of interpersonal or team skills as teachers struggle to cover required material. This ultimately results in the closing of an enormous opportunity for our children to develop these skills in the classroom at a young age. Teachers simply do not have enough of the finite resource of time to properly emphasize the development of these critical life skills.
The Solution and Value Proposition
In response to the observed deficiency in childhood education and interpersonal skill development, 2+2=5 Team*Works was developed originally as a not-for-profit at Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts in 2002. The goal was to better understand how elementary students would react to an opportunity to build and develop these interpersonal skills as well as discuss the relevance to teams and team success. The program is called ‘2+2=5, The Power of Teamwork’ inferring that people can accomplish more by working together than by concentrating on individual accomplishment.
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