Posted on 11/21/2005 8:19:30 AM PST by FerdieMurphy
They don't shake hands anymore in the northern neck of Virginia.
Too many rude comments were made, too many people got spat on, too many fights broke out. So the principals of five schools in the Northern Neck District agreed to end the policy of having opposing high school athletic teams line up single file to shake hands after the game.
In theory, that was supposed to signal an end to competition and respect for worthy opponents. In practice, football, soccer and basketball teams kept turning into wrestling teams, grappling on grass fields and hardwood floors.
Hence, the ban on handshakes, which went into effect at the beginning of the athletic season. That decision has been decried by parents, editorialists and others, but was freshly affirmed by the administrators earlier this month.
You might take it as a sign that These Kids Today have no concept of sportsmanship as we did, back in the day. I'd agree, except that my high school football team used to sprint for the buses whenever they won an away game, because they knew that if the fans and players of the losing team caught them, it would not be pretty. Makes it hard to mount the high horse.
SETTING A NEW STANDARD
Still, I'd be lying if I said I was not struck by the ban in Virginia. If the lack of sportsmanship is not a new wrinkle, perhaps you'll agree that this acquiescence to it is.
Granted, there's no way to quantify that observation. But can you imagine a principal, a coach, a parent or some other adult authority back in the aforementioned day backing down from an important principle simply because young people resisted it?
That is not to lay blame for the decline and fall of Western civilization at the feet of a few school administrators who are, after all, liable for the misbehaviors of students in their care. It is only to suggest that perhaps it is not, in the long run, the smartest thing in the world to change the rules to accommodate that misbehavior. Maybe it would be better to leave sensible rules in place and instead exact a price when students get out of line.
Of course, exacting a price from children has become rather an alien concept in recent years. Consider that in 2002, parents in Piper, Kan., harassed and threatened a teacher because she failed kids for cheating; the school board ordered her to soften the punishment and she wound up quitting her job.
Or, consider that in 2003 in a Chicago suburb, 31 high school students beat a group of girls in a so-called ''hazing'' so brutal that it left five girls hospitalized; one parent dismissed the attack as something that just ``got out of hand.''
Or, you can go back to the spring of this year when a 5-year-old girl in St. Petersburg threw a tantrum so epic that police had to be called; when last heard from, her mother was talking about filing a lawsuit.
WHERE IS ACCOUNTABILITY?
I wondered then what I wonder now: What is wrong with saying to our young people: ``There's a standard you are required to live up to and if you don't, you will be held accountable, period.''
If all our institutions -- school, home, worship house -- said that consistently and enforced it consistently, do you think young people would learn lessons of value? Better question: What lessons do they learn otherwise?
I mean, sure, the schools can keep their ban. Or, they can post adult monitors on the field, issue stern instruction to their athletes and tell them to go shake hands. If Yitzhak Rabin could do it with Yasser Arafat, if John Kerry could do it with George W. Bush, if Shaq and Kobe can touch fists, it's hard to believe that the Raiders of Rappahannock High cannot reach across to the Lancaster Red Devils.
After all, there are important lessons here. How to win, how to lose and how to be an adult either way. These are things that kids need to know and we are obligated to teach.
We ought never to back down from that.
Leonard would throw that in.
If there's going to be a training class on this, can we get the Democrats to sign up?
That being said I have to admit that we have many RINO RepublicRATs who wouldn't sign up either.
Here's an idea: get rid of athletic teams in schools. Use the money saved for Actual Education. Leave the games for after-school playtime for the kiddies on their own parents dimes.
That is exactly right. My girls played soccer and the coaches noticed the spitting thing going on. They put a stop to it instantly by explaining that if it ever happened again, the team would not play.
That's sportsmanship?
The parents are right there alongside the kids, yelling at the referees, harassing the coaches, and beating to the point of killing, anyone who dares to stand in their kids way. Is it any wonder that the kids aren't doing any better? The civility was lost years ago and we are now reaping what was sowed.
Great idea!
I coach a high school lacrosse team and I'm astounded by this ruling. The after-game handshake has always been part of our sport. I've never known of an incident in 30 years of playing and coaching.
If they're not going to teach sportmanship as part of high school athletics, maybe they should end the program.
Our local high school football team goes a step beyond the handshake; it has a postgame prayer and invites the other team to join.
And they usually do.
> The parents are right there alongside the kids, yelling at the referees, harassing the coaches, and beating to the point of killing, anyone who dares to stand in their kids way.
And we have people here on FR who get snippy about "too many nerds." Bah. When did you see a chess-match riot? When was the last time you saw a parent clock another parent upside the head with a chair at a spelling bee?
Bah. Bring on the nerds and the geeks in school. If the jocks want to go beat the tar out of each other... do it off school property, off school time, and off the taxpayers dollar. Either sell off the athletic fields, or turn them into BattleBot arenas and the like... something acedemically *useful.*
Spoken like a true nerd who couldn't compete on the athletic field.
Of course, we could all emulate Bobby Fisher...
>Our local high school football team goes a step beyond the handshake; it has a postgame prayer and invites the other team to join. <
Most college teams in the SEC do the same thing.My daughters High school Soccer team had a drink ministry.They would not only shake hands but give the girls on the other team a Gatorade.
When I coached young kids I hated the line up thing.i tried to teah the kids to go mingle and be genuine.When we did put them in a line I walked the line insisting the girls look them in the eye and congratulate them not just slap hands.
And we're in the SEC region. Most of the fiercest rivalries are in the SEC, but so are the sportsmen.
The big difference in schools between now and back in the day is the fact that parents seem to automatically take the side of their children over the school. Parents are awfully quick now to threaten lawsuits anytime their little darlings are disciplined. And this "question authority" impulse cuts across class and racial lines.
Easy, tell the kids if they can't shake hands like civilized people, they're off the team. Then mean it. Ban them from high school sports for the duration of their stay. An unintended consequence might be that it'll stop the criminalization of sports.
> Spoken like a true nerd who couldn't compete on the athletic field.
And why would I want to?
> Of course, we could all emulate Bobby Fisher...
I suppose that's possible. Or we could all emulate Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk...
Or, we could emulate the high school football team, who you can see bagging groceries or pumping gas or pushing a broom, dreaming about the Good Old Days which are now long past and never to return.
Being a nerd means the future is open and infinite. Being a jock means you peak at 18.
this is crap.
over-age teenagers, are expecting real teenagers to
to grovel, to be on the team.
Worse than this, however,
is the NHL, with its
fake fights and fake blood.
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