In the Clutch with Artem Altman
Let Them Play
Artem Altman
Issue date: 2/18/09 Section: Sports
I would like to ask you, my loyal readers, a few questions. Have you ever played sports in school? Not even necessarily competitive sports, but during recess time? Have you ever done that? Did you play when it was raining outside and when it was 100 degrees? Did you play early in the morning or late at night when the streetlights weren't bright enough? If so, ask yourself what this world is coming to when our children are being brought up as sissies. And here we go.
On Jan. 13 the girl's high school basketball team of Covenant School of Dallas beat Dallas Academy with a score of 100-0. Let's make some things clear: Dallas Academy had not won a game in the last four years and the school itself is structured for kids with learning disabilities. But let's not make excuses for these kids. If they did not win a game in four years (FOUR YEARS) then why wasn't the team disbanded prior to this game ever being played? And if anyone was worried about these kids being traumatized, where were they during those four years?
Our society is trying to protect everyone from everything. Don't do this and don't do that. Soon we will have to start protecting ourselves from ourselves. How about we place our kids into pods and keep them free of the outside world completely. Kids wouldn't have to play sports, they wouldn't have to get discouraged, and then everything would be fine. No!
What I'm hearing as a result of this game is that Covenant's coach should have pulled the starters earlier or possibly the game should have been stopped before the final buzzer. Thank God that none of this was possible because there were no rules in place for this.
For anyone who disagrees and says that I'm insensitive towards kids had better answer this question: is it better to have a lopsided defeat or to have the game stopped because you're losing? Which one would be more embarrassing? For anyone who answers this with the latter: you're a sissie.
This story, however, doesn't stop here. In 2006, elementary schools in Cheyenne, WY, Spokane, WA, and Boston, MA banned the game of tag during recess. What's wrong with the world today? Further more, banning booing at sporting events was considered in some parts of the country.
What is the next step in the battle against competition? How about we ban contact all together? It's not enough that video games are now more than ever in control of kids' free time. Somehow, instead of getting kids to go out and be active we are actually doing the complete opposite.
Adam Carolla once said that, "Our society that is trying to save everyone ends up saving no one." What is left now is to decide whether it is more important for kids nowadays to lead a realistic life or grow up maladjusted in the real world. How long will we keep adding to the deterioration of our societal standards?
On Jan. 13 the girl's high school basketball team of Covenant School of Dallas beat Dallas Academy with a score of 100-0. Let's make some things clear: Dallas Academy had not won a game in the last four years and the school itself is structured for kids with learning disabilities. But let's not make excuses for these kids. If they did not win a game in four years (FOUR YEARS) then why wasn't the team disbanded prior to this game ever being played? And if anyone was worried about these kids being traumatized, where were they during those four years?
Our society is trying to protect everyone from everything. Don't do this and don't do that. Soon we will have to start protecting ourselves from ourselves. How about we place our kids into pods and keep them free of the outside world completely. Kids wouldn't have to play sports, they wouldn't have to get discouraged, and then everything would be fine. No!
What I'm hearing as a result of this game is that Covenant's coach should have pulled the starters earlier or possibly the game should have been stopped before the final buzzer. Thank God that none of this was possible because there were no rules in place for this.
For anyone who disagrees and says that I'm insensitive towards kids had better answer this question: is it better to have a lopsided defeat or to have the game stopped because you're losing? Which one would be more embarrassing? For anyone who answers this with the latter: you're a sissie.
This story, however, doesn't stop here. In 2006, elementary schools in Cheyenne, WY, Spokane, WA, and Boston, MA banned the game of tag during recess. What's wrong with the world today? Further more, banning booing at sporting events was considered in some parts of the country.
What is the next step in the battle against competition? How about we ban contact all together? It's not enough that video games are now more than ever in control of kids' free time. Somehow, instead of getting kids to go out and be active we are actually doing the complete opposite.
Adam Carolla once said that, "Our society that is trying to save everyone ends up saving no one." What is left now is to decide whether it is more important for kids nowadays to lead a realistic life or grow up maladjusted in the real world. How long will we keep adding to the deterioration of our societal standards?
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