(sublinhados meus) - funny how ways of thinking change with time...I understand his point but as I grew "on the outside", I don't agree. Only some can stand up...and that's that!
Rugby isn’t child abuse. But it is dangerous
Why is no one only slightly wrong any more? We don’t say or do things that are foolish or ill-thought out – rather we are immediately guilty of fascism, genocide or child abuse. We don’t deserve to be merely argued against – we deserve to put before an inquisition, in a cage.
I guess that academics at Winchester University have deliberately chosen to use the words ‘child abuse’ in a paper in the Journal of the British Philosophy Association, arguing that schoolchildren shouldn’t be forced to play rugby in order to gain attention. If so, they have succeeded, because it is doubtful that the story would have made it into the newspapers, and I wouldn’t be writing about it now had they stuck to dry academic language. But I doubt that it will help them to make their case. Rather it will merely stir up outrage that they have effectively labelled the head teachers and sports staff at many of Britain’s schools as child abusers.
Children are growing bigger and heavier from a young age
The point that they were trying to make will be lost in the melee.That is a shame because, had it been expressed in more moderate language, I would be fully in agreement with them. While it is tempting to resort to the usual complaints about a ‘snowflake generation’ being kept away from activities which previous generations engaged in quite happily, I remembered my own time at school and thought just how counter-productive it was for sports masters to force children against their will into playing very physical, dangerous sports, and in circumstances which are thoroughly miserable.
As it happens I have never played rugby – my grammar school stopped short of forcing that on us – but I was made to play hockey and I hate the game to this day. Why? Because sports masters would force us onto the games field to play the game in the dead of winter, in a wind chill of minus five, wearing nothing but cotton shirts and shorts. We weren’t even allowed to run around to warm up before we were called into a circle to be taught ‘skills’. You wouldn’t send a professional sports player out in such circumstances; you wouldn’t want to risk them pulling muscles in the cold. But for some reason it was decided that we nedded to be ‘toughened up’.
No, it didn’t toughen me up – it merely made me hate hockey, every second of it. Indeed, for a while my dislike extended to all outdoor sports. I could have ended up a couch potato for life had I not discovered for myself the pleasure of going out running when I was able to warm myself up properly. Surely, schools should be teaching children to love sports, not dread them. There is no point in making children play sport if in the process of doing so we are making them hate it so much that they then opt of out physical activity for the rest of their lives.
With rugby, it is not just a case of getting cold. There is a serious risk of injury, and one which seems to be growing. The sport seems to be becoming ever more physical, and children are growing bigger and heavier from a young age. Or at least some of them are. The vast gulf in size you get between kids around the ages of 11 and 12 makes it even more dangerous. I don’t want to stop people playing rugby if that is what they want to do. But it should be a game for people who want to play it, not for unwilling conscripts.
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