Rutgers, “Coach” Rice, Moral Development & MetroLacrosse
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MetroLacrosse exists because sports are uniquely capable of changing the lives of young people in very positive ways. Watching the video of former Rutgers basketball coach, Mike Rice, abuse his players is a tragic and frustrating experience for me. Not only do I feel sympathy for the victims of the abuse but I am angered by Rice’s abuse of sport as a tool for the development of young people. At a time when Rice could be nurturing skills like grit or developing the growth mindset in his players, he is restricting their development into young men with abusive behavior. He offends me because he uses the power of sport to enhance negative outcomes when sport is capable of such beautiful things. I consider his actions to be a betrayal of the very notion of coaching.
But I am struck by Rice’s firing for other reasons as well, primarily the weak morality displayed by Rutgers University. I’m a big fan of famed educator, Rafe Esquith (Wiki | Official Site | Amazon), and his use of Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development in his 5th grade classroom. In Rafe’s classroom the 6 levels of moral development are explained like this:
- Level 1: I Don’t Want to Get In Trouble
- Level 2: I Want a Reward
- Level 3: I Want to Please Somebody
- Level 4: I Follow the Rules
- Level 5: I am Considerate of Other People
- Level 6: I have a Personal Code of Conduct and I am Going to Live It (the Atticus Finch stage according to Esquith)
The MetroLacrosse team that I coach has been spending a lot of time lately talking about Level 6 and what it means on our team. Clearly, Mike Rice is not a believer in Lawrence Kohlberg. It seemed that he expected his players to perform because they didn’t want to get verbally or physically abused. I’d call that Level 0.
But I expect more from Rutgers University as an institution. University administrators were shown the now infamous video of Rice abusing his players in November. It’s likely that they were aware of the behavior before then. Yet Rice was terminated only when the story became public via ESPN. To me, this represents a Level 1 response. Only when Rice’s behavior would mean “trouble” for the university, did it prompt his termination. Had Rutgers administration been operating at Level 6 or even Level 5, clearly termination would have been warranted on the spot.
I’m disappointed and offended in the way that Mike Rice abused the art of coaching and in the way that Rutgers University responded. I hope that if we all strive to coach at Level 6 we can truly utilize the power of athletics for youth development.
