This comment was by Bill, on the post “Our Schools Are Failing: Why We Need to Engage Boys Where They Are”
The question I would raise, though, with all due respect is why all children should be forced to participate in sports in the first place. Why is this necessary? Should all children be forced to play band instruments, take ballet lessons, or participate in games of chess; or isn’t this a matter of personal preference? The point is not to detract from anyone’s enjoyment of sport, but simply to not subject nonathletic students to pointless humiliation and bullying. The assumption seems to have been made for generations that participation in sports is absolutely vital for boys and that those who choose to not participate in them are somehow deficient. I respectfully but adamantly disagree.
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photo by andrec / flickr
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Just to let you know your web page looks a little bit strange in Safari on my computer with Linux ….
Compulsory PE or Sports ensures all children are given appropriate physical development opportunities. It is essential for lifelong HEALTH that children learn to enjoy exercise, whatever the type is they choose.
Chess or musical instruments aren’t going to keep people physically healthy, even though they are quality skills to be learning as well. They are simply part of a number of things that may be useful, but not essential skills in life.
Compulsory sports in P.E. classes do NOT ensure that nonathletic children “are given appropriate physical development opportunities.” Of course, “(i)t is essential for lifelong HEALTH that children learn to enjoy exercise, whatever the type is they choose.” Picture in your mind a scrawny boy or a fat boy who is constantly humiliated and bullied in a traditional mandatory P.E. that is centered around sports to the exclusion of any exercise program that would benefit him. Do you think he enjoys being bullied in P.E. (often on a daily basis)? Also ask yourself this question: Does a boy in such a… Read more »
With respect to sports in schools, I think part of the problem is that those in charge are generally in that position because they were good at sports themselves and are generally not trained teachers. I have heard of some brilliant exceptions, but we are talking here about the rule. A great sportsman is usually not a great PE teacher in the same way that a great mathematician is usually not a great math teacher – it comes naturally to them so they can’t relate or explain to those to whom it does not. I think keeping physical activity in… Read more »
Of course, I do not think that kids should be forced to take sports…they should have a variety of activities to choose from (the more the better)… Although I will say that being taught how to be a good volleyball player is very useful….we used to play co-ed volleyball and I was always jealous of the beautiful and athletic girls who could set, smack, and bump that ball over to the other side and win the point! Also, learning tennis in college was a turning point for me…after a few lessons, I learned how to volley the ball over and… Read more »
I think physical fitness is important but should be about fun and not competition at least in the lower years of school. When they are looking at competitive sports it should be completely voluntary. I have two kids and for me it is important that they do some form of physical activity but I don’t really mind what it is! I will let them try whatever they like and if it turns out to be a team sport then that is fine but if they choose dance, circus class, breakdancing, fencing or rockclimbing then any of those things is okay… Read more »
If I may, I see the problem as the sports in-school as the problem. The religion of being either a champ of the school football team or a target for abuse just confounds me. In Finland, the most well educated country on the planet, there is no school sports, and therefore these “cliques” of abused and abusers are far less prominent. If there are going to be sports in our children’s lives they have got to be outside the schoolhouse, organized by the communities we live in. That being said, physical education is still extremely important (we should promote it… Read more »
I may not have been clear. Of course, I agree that parents should expose their children to a range of different activities. But the parents should be truly concerned with what is beneficial to their child and what his actual needs are, and not simply try to force their child into doing something that would only enable them to live through the child and expect their child to bring glory to them. The point I was trying to make was that expecting (or demanding) that all boys play sports is just as mindless as insisting that all boys should take… Read more »
I believe that everyone SHOULD be required to take some kind of physical activity program, whatever form that may be. To me this is essential to building healthy communities, healthy bodies, and strong futures. I didn’t enjoy sports as a child and they were not emphasized in my family. As a result, I did not participate in sport or recreation and I am less than healthy as a result. Bill, your PE teachers, parents, and psychologist did you a diservice. Just because YOUR experience was less than ideal, doesn’t mean that it is a bad idea. You had a bad… Read more »
When my son was old enough we put him in T-Ball, he didn’t like it. We tried ice skating. I figured I played Ice Hockey as a kid, he might like it. He hated it. A year and a half ago I took him to his first concert, Linkin Park. He loved the band and I told him if he wanted to we would get him guitar lessons if liked the show enough. After the concert he asked me, “Daddy, when can I get my guitar lessons?” He’s been playing since April 2011. He’s a smaller kid and isn’t very… Read more »
That’s my point, Brian. And kudos for listening to your son, communicating with him about what he’s truly interested in and encouraging him to follow it. That’s what being a dad is all about. Natch, that’s what being a PARENT is all about.
Thank you for being a great father!
To those who think every child should be subjected to playing sports regardless of their interest in it or not, I have a serious question: What if that child wasn’t benefiting from it and is instead getting tormented? When I was a kid, before PE class in elementary school, changing with the boys was the most uncomfortable experience in my life. Simply because they would always smirk at my body or convince me to show them my privates. Every time this happened, I prayed that when days came that they weren’t making my body a target for ridicule, it would… Read more »
Edit: It frightens ME the amount of people that think every child should be pushed into sports.
They just don’t care, Eagle34. In fact, they are downright intolerant. They are also hypocritical when they claim they are concerned about kids who are out of shape or are obese. Actions speak louder than words. If they were truly concerned about these kids, they would be supporting programs (such as the innovative PE4Life program) that actually promote physical fitness. But they clearly are not. The well-being of nonathletic kids is not their concern. These people have made a religion out of sports. (Well, not all sports. Some sports clearly are more equal than others.) School sports have become a… Read more »
Time was, we needed boys to prepare to be soldiers. This meant not just getting them in a basic physical condition, but acclimating them to that same kind of humiliation and bullying that traditionally makes boys soldiers.
I have difficulty understanding how a man who apparently condones bullying in the schools could be considered to be a “good man.”
There is a world of difference between a bunch of recruits at a military base and a child seeking an education at a school.
I didn’t know that boot camp started in junior high school. My, that’s early! I had no idea …
Yes, children (especially strong willed, gifted and special needs) need to be made to try everything.
Otherwise they will grow up not realizing their full potential.
Enough time to specialize after you grow up.
Teaching boys to enjoy reading longer stuff is hard work, I think it is because it’s harder to get them to concentrate on one thing for a long time. It is critically important both for their future and he country in general.
I was an exception cause I was a geek and nerd, but my addiction to reading (technical manuals to start) served me very well and I snagged high paying jobs without having a University Degree.
Yes, they should. And, yes, all kids should spend some time playing an instrument, and learning some dance, and playing chess, and reading books, and doing math. These experiences help children discover what they are actually good at and enjoy, instead of what their family likes, or assumes they’ll like, or social norms say they should like. This produces more well-rounded people with better understandings of the world.
I whole-heartedly agree. My folks made me play sports. I’d have much preferred not to. Playing sports helped me make friends, helped a skinny kid feel strong and confident, and eventually made me good at some sports. I wish they’d also made me learn to dance, learn an instrument and other things that are useful experiences. I feel like a parent’s job isn’t to be their kid’s friend, or their kid’s enabler–helping them do just what’s comfortable and interesting and avoid what’s not. Maybe it’s the sports speaking, but I think a parent should be much like a coach. Their… Read more »
During the spring of my eighth-grade year in junior high, my parents started taking me to a clinical psychologist because I was being picked on at school and my grades had fallen. Unfortunately, the psychologist turned out to be abysmally incompetent. Despite the fact I had issues with coaches and athlete classmates because of the mandatory “sports only” P.E. I had had to endure for four years, he decided I should take judo lessons. (By the way, an expert in the martial arts with whom I recently corresponded by e-mail last year told me that judo is the wrong choice… Read more »
Clearly I’m not needed here anymore. Thank you.