sept 19, 2012

so, this is happening, and won't somebody think of the children...

in fact, i think this is a good thing and would like to see it made permanent. hopefully, it lasts long enough that it becomes the norm. i have massive issues with the idea of the school system funding competitive sports.

first, it's competitive, which means it provokes and incites competitive behaviour. i don't want my taxes being spent on something that fosters that kind of behaviour. and, no, i don't want kids; it's not about my kids, it's about the society that i want to live in. i don't want to live in a society that pits individual against individual, team against team, glorifies the idea of 'winning' and ridicules those who 'lose'. if that's the kind of horrible world you want to raise your kids in, the very least you can do is accept responsibility for paying for it yourself. but, you should really be finding less violent ways to get your kids in shape, for the benefit of everybody.

second, we have this huge gender gap in high schools and we can't figure it out. duh? IT'S THE EMPHASIS ON SPORTS, STUPID. you take these young guys, you wake them up at 5 am, you tell them their sexuality depends on how gracefully they can handle a tree branch, you place their very worth as a human on it...and then you wonder why they don't care about school and can't do well in it. could it be that you taught them to skate but didn't teach them to read?

third is money, and i don't mean absolutely. this is a true story: in the ninth grade, they gave me a brand new football helmet, right out of the packaging. yeah, i got coerced; i told people i played left bench. but, also in the ninth grade, i didn't have a functional science textbook, not one amongst the array of battered, decade old texts. i had to keep swapping out half-texts. they were over-enrolled, i was told. does that seem reasonable to you?

sports & religion: out of schools!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/09/17/ottawa-sports-teams-high-school-deadline.html