Columnist: Get rid of team sports in gym class

Indeed. I expect the author would have taken it that way.

And, hey, I call my friends "faggots" all the time. No disrespect intended. I just mean they are being sissies. It has nothing to do with being gay.

And I called my unemployed white friend a "nigger."

 

None of which changes the fact that the author is an idiot.

 

They play it at the YMCA where my oldest goes after school. He loves it even though he's one of the youngest kids there, which means his chances at winning are virtually zero.

 

And, of course, a "bitch."

 

I'd be more worried about the kids who are humiliated in english and math class than the ones who are humiliated in gym.

Everybody can't be good at everything.

 

Shit, that was a badge of honor at my meathead high school.

 

Based on your posts on this thread, I think you may be assuming I endorse the column. I didn't read it. What I posted is what I truly believe. If you're going to ask me how to handle different things that could happen in such a class, well, I don't have the time for that. You know what? You deal with it. There is a way to have a class like that and minimize the ridicule.

But you know what else? It's kids, in school. You can't eliminate it. And you can't expect to.

Anyway, I believe what I posted. Whether it matches what the columnist wrote, I don't know. But it's hard for me to imagine you really can't see the benefit in such a class as the one I described. I'm pretty certain whatever the columnist endorsed, you are against.

 

Yeah, I got ragged on in high school because my coach bragged about my SAT score when I was named player of the week by the local paper. At the time, I thought it was the end of the fucking world. In hindsight, it was a pretty nice problem to have...

I was on academic decathlon or "nerd olympics" as it was called. I got ragged on endlessly for that, enough so that I quit as a sophomore, before I was talked out of it and came back.

As a parent, I hope my kids are ragged on for doing well in school.

 

Is is sports that teach that, or sports being taught in the right way?

Covering high school sports I got the sense the high level of competition there doesn't really have a high correlation to understanding how to succeed in real life. Often athletics actually get in the way of that, because meeting short-term goals like state titles or winning the next game get put ahead of long-term stuff like working toward a good GPA or taking your SAT in a timely manner. As for learning to fail, maybe there is a lesson in bawling on a cold football field after ending your 3-8 season with a 35-point playoff loss. I don't exactly see it, but perhaps it manifests itself later on.

I think it comes down to getting kids involved in the sport in a positive way. Mizzou's son plays a sport he can't win, but finds enjoyment in it. Rhody enjoyed going all out at volleyball even though he wasn't that good. They compete with the knowledge they can't win in many senses, but find the good. It's about teaching kids to enjoy the process instead of the result, not letting it get to a point where kids don't want to play. I don't think you need to kill team sports (I was terrible in PE, but still had fun much of the time), but too often we extrapolate the value of competition alone to where it makes it very hard for some kids to learn to enjoy sports like that.

 

Jumping jacks followed by a vigorous session of running in place.

 

Sports also offer the lesson that if you're good enough, you won't get in trouble for anything. Teachers will let you slide and disciplinary problems will be erased. So the whole "sports as life" thing is pretty ill-informed in a lot of cases.

We had a great three-sport athlete in our school. During senior hoops season he got busted burglarizing a house -- during school hours, no less. He was suspended for one game.

Like I said, great high school athlete. But not good enough to play anything at DI level. So when he went off to State U, his education was interrupted by a prison sentence for running a theft ring. We had quite a few similar (usually lesser) stories of athletic excellence not corresponding once the fleeting fame and glory ran out).

 

Jesus, I'm glad I never covered sports in your area.