After a particularly hard week at work.. away from home for 3 days and not in till late on one...
I managed to sneak out of work and get to my boys first sports day
He was sooo excited that I was there and better still he won his spacehopper race!!
I am a big believer, rightly or wrongly in competitive sports and that there should be a winner and a runner up etc.... the nursery found a good way to keep all happy! they made a fuss of the winner, then all the others were second winners and third etc etc
Its amazing how something so small can bring a huge smile to the kids faces, I thoroughly enjoyed watching all the kids running around and enjoying themselves
You want to try being the one that gives out the placings though (My job every year at our school) The parents jump on you if you give it to the wrong child! Not that easy to spot which ones are 1st, 2nd, 3rd when you have 10 of them running at you and the parents standing on the finishing line to get a picture of little Johnny running towards them!
I agree though, the kids love it!
.. Agreed, the parents need to get a grip! that said I know how he would have been if he didn't win..(histerical)
Is the lack of competitive sports in our schools to blame for the lack of British sporting success??... should we be pushing our children to win... although be sporting if they lose?
We do have a competitive sports day (but no booing is allowed of rival teams ) But I know a lot of primary schools don't.
I think they need to learn that there will be competition in everything they do in life! Losing is part of that. Quite often the kids that are not academic also get their chance to shine through sports. I don't think we should push our children to win, they need to want to win for themselves. Not everyone is of a competitive nature (I know i'm not, i'm too lazy)
This was a major beef of mine when my children were at junior school!
My son's dyslexic and found every lesson difficult and he struggled badly with confidence issues, as he wasn't stupid but when it came to sport, he shone out like a star.. or should I say, he would have done, if they'd have allowed him.
All the races were designed as courses, where you just had to finish it..
It could have been the one and only time where he was 'the best' at something but they took that away from him..
In saying that, I took him to football club, swimming and gymnastics outside school time and he ended up winning the Gold medal for gymnastics in Barnet, in the age category above his age and he was allowed to stand up in school assembly and proudly show off the newspaper clipping and medal to everyone.. (ooh it brings a tear to my eye to remember! )
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"If you're going to do something tonight, that you know you'll be sorry for in the morning, plan a lie in." Lorraine
There are plenty of other reasons, arguably more important. The relative lack of good sporting facilities, comparitively poor diet, and a couch potato culture. You could even argue that, in many sports, Britain fails by thinking it has some sort of divine right to be good at it. Just because much organised sport started during the days of the British Empire.
Another factor: too many sports in the UK are just keen to rake in the dosh, and blame someone else for not providing them with their stars. Yes, tennis and golf, we're looking at you here...
My mum and dad kind of gave up on sports days with me. My Sister got all the medals and trophies and was a member of the local athletics club. Me, even from my very first sports day I came last. When I was young I was sickly and couldn't run and later when I was healthier and faster I just couldn't see the point.
I dropped Sports/PE as soon as I possibly could, became library assistant and joined the chess club instead.
In theory competitive sports are good.. in practice I find that there's always one little chap who's always last because he can't run or can't be bothered to run and kids being kids will make their life hell. It's animal instinct for packs of animals to pick on the weakest. and "we aint nuthin but mammals" as the song goes...
I think we should 'encourage' our children to be the best they can be. And as long as they try their best, we should be happy, no matter if they come last!
Your lucky you had the option.
There's always a little chap sitting at the back of the class, day in and day out, who feels inadequate, misunderstood and useless too.In theory competitive sports are good.. in practice I find that there's always one little chap who's always last because he can't run or can't be bothered to run and kids being kids will make their life hell. It's animal instinct for packs of animals to pick on the weakest. and "we aint nuthin but mammals" as the song goes...
But he doesn't have the choice to drop English, History, Maths and Science.
And sports day is the ONLY oportunity for him to feel good about himself, amongst his peers!
MODERATOR AT YOUR SERVICE
"If you're going to do something tonight, that you know you'll be sorry for in the morning, plan a lie in." Lorraine
Agree with the couch potato culture - across sports and pretty much everything else. When I worked at an Australian newspaper, there was some independent research commissioned on our readers. It turned out that 95% of our readers played sport at least once a week (that's sport - not going to the gym). Love to know the numbers for that in the UK. (Still didn't help the paper get any more space on its sports pages, which was daft - why commission research if you don't do anything with the results?) Sorry Dan, hijack over.
Just looking for the words and di posted this
We are all winners and loosers in life, its important to learn to accept both.
Joe's not brill at sports day, but he has learned to 'pat' his best mate on the back cos that's 'his thing' and Joe supporting him means the world to him they help each other in different ways.
and if you haven't noticed i can't spell
I remember loathing sports days from the very beginning, I wasn't always last in junior school, but in senior school my PE teacher made me run the 200m every single year, even though I always came last . It was a shame in a way because I could jump high/long and I could throw things, but I was no good at running - so why she couldn't have entered me for one of the other events i really don't know. In a way it felt like she was trying to make me look bad on purpose - I was always a 'good girl' at school and was good at most academic subjects, so maybe she was trying to make me realise that I couldn't be good at everything?
A bit mean perhapse, but a good lesson to learn - although one you learn all too frequently as you get older, from my experience .
I think I may have worded the original question wrong, i did mean encourage not push honestly!!
I do feel that sports day etc does give the less academic children a chance to shine.... I remember lots of my friends at school were not brilliant in class, but played proffesional football by the time they were 14!!
thanks all for the responses.....
A friend of mine was "not brilliant" in class, and just as bad at sports. What could a school do to give him a chance to shine?
Let your mind go and your body will follow. – Steve Martin, LA Story
How about Art? Drama? Social skills? There is usually one aspect that a child favours in school and that is the thing to focus on. I work one to one with an autistic child. He hates English but loves computer games, so we try to focus on writing stories about such games or things connected with them. Unfortunately the curriculum is too restrictive to be able to cater for each individual as we would really like to, but we do our best.
There are all sorts of things that can be praised.. IMO its important to find out what indeed the child 'is' good at, and add a value it it!
OK, he might not have been good at the two things you've mentioned but he may have been good at Art, Music, singing or even cookery?
Most of the above are subjective, so it was up to the teacher to make him feel good about his efforts and bring out the confidence in him.
But lastly as Fletch said, he could have simply been held up as an example to others and shown that he was valued by everyone else, for his 'supportive' nature
MODERATOR AT YOUR SERVICE
"If you're going to do something tonight, that you know you'll be sorry for in the morning, plan a lie in." Lorraine
It seems Cruella and I am on the same wavelength
MODERATOR AT YOUR SERVICE
"If you're going to do something tonight, that you know you'll be sorry for in the morning, plan a lie in." Lorraine
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