Critics Aim to Bounce Dodge Ball Off the Schoolyard

LA Times ^ | 3/18/02 | MARTIN MILLER

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

It sounds like a classic California story: Adults concerned about self-esteem and unchecked competition legislate all the rough-and-tumble out of childhood.

In this case, there is a movement afoot to ban dodge ball, a staple of the playground for generations. Dodge ball, it seems, is bad. There are liability concerns, critics say, and the game provides a poor cardiovascular workout. The real deal-breaker, though, is that the game can hurt children's feelings, not to mention their teeth.

[Maceman]

whether they let kids make human targets out of their classmates

Bias. More accurate would be to say: "whether they let kids make human targets of themselves to their classmates. BIG difference.

In 1963, when I was in seventh grade, we got a new principal. One of the first things he did was stop dodge ball, a hallowed formal and informal recreation much beloved by my classmates and I.

I wasn't good at a lot of sports, but I was good at dodging. I used to love to do it. I was outraged at this new interloper for his idiotic rigidity.

Guess he's mainstream now. It's enough to make you puke.

[Ditter]

I am a good bit older than you in 1963 I was 23 years old & a mother but we didn't play dodge ball in 7th grade. In 7th grade we played softball, tennis, volleyball & basketball. I played dodge ball in 2nd & 3rd grade. At least thats when I was the dodge balls target. I was very small & a year younger than most of the class. The call for dodge ball was the thing I dreaded most of all. The small kids were the targets of the larger stronger boys, it didn't matter if we were girls. Girls & boys played together & it was an elementary school game. I can remembr being knocked down & skinning my knees & hands till they bled. If we had played in 7th grade I probably would have loved it too.

[Betty Jane]

I work in a K-8 school and dodge ball is an alltime favorite of most of the older kids. The younger kids want either a more structured game like kickball or soccer or just a free recess on the swings and jungle gym.

The older kids love it. The kids can all catch and throw by that age. The girls who will never like P.E. get out early on purpose so they can sit on the sidelines and chat. The non-athletic boys will stay in the back until the end of the game. The really talented kids take it seriously and will play competetively to win, but often get out because they take foolish chances. The clutzes have a good chance of winning or at least lasting a long time.

Anyhow, dodge ball is a good time for all, now played with squishy nerf like balls so no body ever gets hurts.

[John H K]

When I was in 7th grade gym class, I broke my right pinky catching a dodge ball thrown from close range....by a girl :-)

Only bone I've ever broken. Maybe the Prof has a point :-).

I don't feel all that emotionally scarred though.

[MonroeDNA]

I was a smaller child, and got my butt kicked in dodgeball pretty regular. One of the first ones out. But I kept in there, never shying away. Eventually I got prety darn good at catching the ball, and my throwing skills improved, too. Sheer hard work, and an unwillingness to hide, to be a baby, to be a wuss.

I was never the best, but after years, gained enough skill to make it to the last few, and that was the beginning of my "stand or sink on your own" education.

Do I feel bad for those who felt bad in dodgeball? Nope. I was there, too.

Competition among individuals is what freedom is all about. Preventing it is what utopians wish.

This is not meant for you--just an observation....Sooner or later life teaches you this, and then you undersatand and accomplish what you can. On your own. With nothing but your brains and will.

[lepton]

The small kids were the targets of the larger stronger boys,

It was a recreation that those skinny kids excelled at.

[Ditter]

In second grade? Come on. Second graders are babies. Thats when WE played dodge ball.

[PhilDragoo]

My grade school was during the Eisenhower administration from construction in 1952 to the fraudulent election of Kennedy.

Dodge ball was strictly lunchtime recess in the asphalt play yard bordered on three sides by the brick walls of the H-shaped school, and by the iron fence on the fourth.

We played a version in which those tagged out by the throw of the red rather soft ball smaller than a basketball stood on the sidelines and cheered--and I think we could catch the ball if it came to us, and throw it to our allies.

There was action, suspense, great fun--and only a scrape or two that anybody got during all that time.

There was none of this so-horrible psycho-sexual abuse described by the current crop of "experts"--who have given us the "Kleibold-Harris Dodge-Ball Variant": "Dodge Bullet".

The consistent intent of all of this de-competitiveness is to reduce the young to soft, obese wimps.

[KneelBeforeZod]

thats why I moved out of CT nine years ago

[glc1173@aol.com]

"The real deal-breaker, though, is that the game can hurt children's feelings" (Los Angeles Times)

So can losing a chess game! Our PC government schools are so obsessed with "self-esteem" that it has resulted in not just the pressure to end competitive sports, especially those some kid will be last picked for a team in - but also resulted in the dumbing down of curricula and textbooks.

Inside the NEA

[backhoe]

These people really are daft, aren't they?

[sit-rep]

We played with the red rubber balls...about 12" in diameter. When you got whacked in the face with one of those, you new it!

Hearing they now play with nerf balls, it breaks my heart!

SR