Posted on 11/21/2005 8:19:30 AM PST by FerdieMurphy
They don't shake hands anymore in the northern neck of Virginia.
Too many rude comments were made, too many people got spat on, too many fights broke out. So the principals of five schools in the Northern Neck District agreed to end the policy of having opposing high school athletic teams line up single file to shake hands after the game.
In theory, that was supposed to signal an end to competition and respect for worthy opponents. In practice, football, soccer and basketball teams kept turning into wrestling teams, grappling on grass fields and hardwood floors.
Hence, the ban on handshakes, which went into effect at the beginning of the athletic season. That decision has been decried by parents, editorialists and others, but was freshly affirmed by the administrators earlier this month.
You might take it as a sign that These Kids Today have no concept of sportsmanship as we did, back in the day. I'd agree, except that my high school football team used to sprint for the buses whenever they won an away game, because they knew that if the fans and players of the losing team caught them, it would not be pretty. Makes it hard to mount the high horse.
SETTING A NEW STANDARD
Still, I'd be lying if I said I was not struck by the ban in Virginia. If the lack of sportsmanship is not a new wrinkle, perhaps you'll agree that this acquiescence to it is.
Granted, there's no way to quantify that observation. But can you imagine a principal, a coach, a parent or some other adult authority back in the aforementioned day backing down from an important principle simply because young people resisted it?
That is not to lay blame for the decline and fall of Western civilization at the feet of a few school administrators who are, after all, liable for the misbehaviors of students in their care. It is only to suggest that perhaps it is not, in the long run, the smartest thing in the world to change the rules to accommodate that misbehavior. Maybe it would be better to leave sensible rules in place and instead exact a price when students get out of line.
Of course, exacting a price from children has become rather an alien concept in recent years. Consider that in 2002, parents in Piper, Kan., harassed and threatened a teacher because she failed kids for cheating; the school board ordered her to soften the punishment and she wound up quitting her job.
Or, consider that in 2003 in a Chicago suburb, 31 high school students beat a group of girls in a so-called ''hazing'' so brutal that it left five girls hospitalized; one parent dismissed the attack as something that just ``got out of hand.''
Or, you can go back to the spring of this year when a 5-year-old girl in St. Petersburg threw a tantrum so epic that police had to be called; when last heard from, her mother was talking about filing a lawsuit.
WHERE IS ACCOUNTABILITY?
I wondered then what I wonder now: What is wrong with saying to our young people: ``There's a standard you are required to live up to and if you don't, you will be held accountable, period.''
If all our institutions -- school, home, worship house -- said that consistently and enforced it consistently, do you think young people would learn lessons of value? Better question: What lessons do they learn otherwise?
I mean, sure, the schools can keep their ban. Or, they can post adult monitors on the field, issue stern instruction to their athletes and tell them to go shake hands. If Yitzhak Rabin could do it with Yasser Arafat, if John Kerry could do it with George W. Bush, if Shaq and Kobe can touch fists, it's hard to believe that the Raiders of Rappahannock High cannot reach across to the Lancaster Red Devils.
After all, there are important lessons here. How to win, how to lose and how to be an adult either way. These are things that kids need to know and we are obligated to teach.
We ought never to back down from that.
Check out your military service academy students.
There you have bright minds who also have physical prowess.
Too bad that you seem to think in the either/or mode. Life isn't a two way decision gate.
Fortunately there are enough engineers out here who are more developed and well rounded than you.
Threaten lawsuits, indeed! So there is the deeply buried root of this social problem (and many others)...entirely too d**ned many lawyers, with nothing better to do (like getting a REAL job;)
Of course, we could all emulate Bobby Fisher...
Let's all hide under a rock...
extorting as much money from the community for as little work as possible
You're right, I HARDLY do any work as a teacher because it's such an easy job. The parents appreciate my lack of effort too.
Here's an idea: get rid of athletic teams in schools.
Half of the town where I grew up would lynch someone for making a statement like that. While the FOCUS should not be on them, I liked going to them as a teenager. I went back to my first high school football game in YEARS. The old atmosphere was back.
Apples don't fall too far from the trees.
They would not only shake hands but give the girls on the other team a Gatorade.
That can make your hair sticky you know:).
Sign me,
Marching Illini Alum
Member of the Honor the Chief org.
We should have well developed minds and bodies. Sadly things have gotten out of balance in some areas.
We should have well developed minds and bodies. Sadly things have gotten out of balance in some areas.
They indeed have. For me, school came first and I loved it, but I did enjoy the athletic part of it too. Things have gotten out of balance in MANY areas.
You're right, I HARDLY do any work as a teacher because it's such an easy job. The parents appreciate my lack of effort too.
See the school strike in the Pennsbury School District, PA. Average teacher's salary is $75,000 and they pay nothing for health care - AND THEY ARE ON STRIKE!
>Check out your military service academy students.
> There you have bright minds who also have physical prowess.
Not high school, are they.
> Too bad that you seem to think in the either/or mode.
How do you figure? If you want to go play a game... fine. Go forth. But whether that game is Doom, football or Dungeons and Dragons, it's not appropriate for a taxpayer-funded educational establishment... *especially* when the long-term result is ill-educated criminal thugs.
> Fortunately there are enough engineers out here who are more developed and well rounded than you.
Fortuantely, you don't know anything about me.
> Half of the town where I grew up would lynch someone for making a statement like that.
One more reason why it's important. What would be the chances of you getting lynched for sayign the chess club or the drama department should be gotten rid of? Sports, far from being a civilizing force for proper behavior, has become an outlet for brainless barbarism.
> We should have well developed minds and bodies.
Indeed so. What does that have to do with enshrining football or basketball? Have basic PE... but sports are a pointless and expensive appendage on an educational establishment.
Forcing players to shake hands or not shake hands with the other team does not seem to have much to do with sportmanship. I played at the college and high school level many years back. There were times that you truly felt like going up to an opponent after a game and there were times that you did not. But the one thing that was overriding in those days was that you had a responsibility to the team and to the school. You may have felt like being unsportmanslike at times, but you knew that you were representing your school and your family and you could not embarrass them and if you did you would regret it. There were teams that you played that had reputations for poor sportmanship and the coaches and administrators were not shy in lecturing once in a while that you did not want to be like so and so. The teams that I played on were hesitant to run the scores up on other teams because it was known that in a year or two the roles might be reversed. Hotdogging and showing up the other team were not tolerated. We learned the team was more important than the individual. That element of sportmanship is sorely lacking on almost all levels of sport today.
My own personal feeling is that we should respect anyone of any job field who works hard, does his/her best, does so with integrity, and has a great attitude.
I agree in principle with you because I am a teacher. How many scientists or mathmeticians can the average person name? But how many sports stars can the average person name? I will often hear that there was no time for homework because of soccer practice, a baseball game, etc.
The benefit to my hometown is not academic necessarily, but it is indeed civic and a sign of town pride. Like it or not, many universities get promoted more through athletics than in academic areas. People don't show up in droves to watch the knowledge bowl team at Michigan.
Most of our military officers from other sources are just as well rounded, too.
Fortuantely, you don't know anything about me.
You don't like athletic competition.
You hold atheltic competition in contept.
You view those who compete in high school as losers who peak at 18.
You seem to think that athletes can do nothing intellectual.
You seem to think that life is either sports or brains.
You probably endured wedgies throughout your middle school and high school years.
And...you really do have a problem with those who can and do compete athletically.
Sounds a lot like jealousy and bitterness on your part.
The three other kids in my daughter's AP Physics class are all football players. Her lab partner is the starting quarterback.
Sadly things have gotten out of balance in some areas.
My huge stomach is one of those. I tilt forward every time I walk. My little first graders started patting my stomach like a little Bhudda last year rather than give me a high five on the way out. Geez...
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