A Rio Grande City CISD P.E. teacher has been arrested for what he is alleged to have done in a game of dodge ball at the school. The allegations say he organized a boys versus girls dodge ball game, played on the girls side, and then targeted a fifth grade boy for serious abuse in the game hitting him in the face with the balls and laughing at the student. It is alleged that the boy was left with marks and swelling on his face.
The wimpy Left has been out to destroy most competitive sport for years and dodge ball has long been a target. The problem with dodge ball, or any other sport for that matter, isn’t the inherent competitive nature of the sport or the physical injury that can arise. In most sport, problems worthy of criticism arise only when participants do not adhere to the spirit and rules of the game.
Among youth, it is the job of adults to ensure that boundaries of behavior are respected. Often such is called sportsmanship but I don’t like the term because it can mean anything to anyone.
What I found sorely missing from P.E. instructors and coaches was the intellectual lesson that it is as much of a desired skill to control and limit one’s actions to the parameters of a game as it is to excel in a particular skill within a game.
…it is as much of a desired skill to control and limit one’s actions to the parameters of a game as it is to excel in a particular skill within a game.
This is simply not taught directly by most and yet it is the primary life-skill which comes from sport that is so often touted as the justification for funding such in schools. Learning to cope with defeat and winning is minor compared to mastering the self discipline of being able to confine one’s actions within a set of parameters even when emotionally charged or “fired up” as coach would say.
If a teacher or coach acts a bully, that is an example of not confining one’s action within the accepted limits and should not be tolerated. Adults should use sport to teach the self discipline of restraint, not excuse such failures as is often done to keep a star athlete playing, as sport is a two-sided coin and imbalance leads to rotten players and people.
The paramount lesson of sport if often not taught
Robert Pratt
A Rio Grande City CISD P.E. teacher has been arrested for what he is alleged to have done in a game of dodge ball at the school. The allegations say he organized a boys versus girls dodge ball game, played on the girls side, and then targeted a fifth grade boy for serious abuse in the game hitting him in the face with the balls and laughing at the student. It is alleged that the boy was left with marks and swelling on his face.
The wimpy Left has been out to destroy most competitive sport for years and dodge ball has long been a target. The problem with dodge ball, or any other sport for that matter, isn’t the inherent competitive nature of the sport or the physical injury that can arise. In most sport, problems worthy of criticism arise only when participants do not adhere to the spirit and rules of the game.
Among youth, it is the job of adults to ensure that boundaries of behavior are respected. Often such is called sportsmanship but I don’t like the term because it can mean anything to anyone.
What I found sorely missing from P.E. instructors and coaches was the intellectual lesson that it is as much of a desired skill to control and limit one’s actions to the parameters of a game as it is to excel in a particular skill within a game.
…it is as much of a desired skill to control and limit one’s actions to the parameters of a game as it is to excel in a particular skill within a game.
This is simply not taught directly by most and yet it is the primary life-skill which comes from sport that is so often touted as the justification for funding such in schools. Learning to cope with defeat and winning is minor compared to mastering the self discipline of being able to confine one’s actions within a set of parameters even when emotionally charged or “fired up” as coach would say.
If a teacher or coach acts a bully, that is an example of not confining one’s action within the accepted limits and should not be tolerated. Adults should use sport to teach the self discipline of restraint, not excuse such failures as is often done to keep a star athlete playing, as sport is a two-sided coin and imbalance leads to rotten players and people.