Posted on 11/07/2011 9:19:06 AM PST by MissEdie
You could accomplish the SAME thing if you put him in the game in a situation where he'd not be tackled or put in any danger (assuming that he couldn't handle being tackled -- if he could, what's the problem with letting him be tackled)? He does whatever he does, and then everybody mobs around him and cheers him for what he ACTUALLY DID.
And for the rest of his life, he remembers everybody cheering him and mobbing him. And he either NEVER remembers why -- or he DOES remember, and it was something he actually DID, and they were cheering him for what he DID. Instead of cheering him for what they handed him.
The problem with this incident is that, the more aware the child really is, the more it is a hurtful, not helpful thing. It only works as you claim if the kid truly is clueless, and has no idea at all what happened. The more he is aware, the less kind and more spiteful the act is. WHereas MY plan workse just as well for your case, but works equally well if the child is aware.
Is it really THAT hard to figure out how to cheer on a DS child for a REAL accomplishment, that we have to go around manufacturing fake accomplishments for them?
‘A Yamaha 0W01 sounds like a panther passing a kidney
stone when you do this!,
Now that’s funny!
Sports are supposed to build character and teach teamwork.
Lesson concluded.
This is what the United States of America is like ... not like Occupy Wall Street ... it’s about Compassion not Covetousness.
Well, the teams I coached never had to worry about sitting people down, because we never were the better team.
That’s because I was just a volunteer coach, so I went to the draft with no real agenda the one time I was assigned before the draft. The other times I signed up after the draft because my kid’s team had no coach.
The good teams were built over the years, and knew how to fix the draft to keep their team together.
Your comment about “teaching sportsmanship” by not running up the score is something I have trouble fitting into my rant here. I think you are right — part of being good sports is not running up the score. But I’ve been complaining here about teams “giving away” stuff to the other team, and “letting up” is “giving away”, so I’m being inconsistant.
So I would look for ways to “ease up” that were not transparent. For example, maybe I take my best scorer, and put them as keeper if they aren’t that good at it, or in defensive positions. I put my worst kid up at forward, and tell the rest of the team that I don’t want anybody scoring without first passing to him. So the bad kids get in the game, get the ball passsed to them, probably won’t score, but the other team sees us still playing hard, just handicapped.
You might also tell your kids to work on their wrong foot. But still, I guess at some point you ask them not to try so hard, but not to make it look like you aren’t.
True sportsmanship in this case would be to give the other team a chance to feel accomplished, without them KNOWING you were giving them the gift. Not easy, and I guess I’m saying be deceptive which doesn’t sound cool, but the other team will at least THINK they are doing better on their own, or if they see what is happening, they’ll still see it is a “competition”.
I do think that’s a different situation than this.
I also sometimes look at this from the other side — there are a few dozen kids on the team. There are hundreds in school that would love to be on the team, but weren’t able to make the team.
Why does one DS kid get to have their lifelong dream met, while all these other kids are shut out? Who chooses which one kid gets the special treatment? How do you decide that one kid deserves this, and the others don’t? Well, life isn’t fair, but if it really is “so compassionate” to take one unskilled child and give them this thrill, why isn’t it better to make a list of all the kids, and bring some in for every game?
If both teams did this, they could each bring three unskilled players to each game, and the last 5 minutes of the game could be dedicated to letting each of these 3 kids score a touchdown. The final scores would be higher, but still the same differential, and everybody would “know” that the 21 extra points weren’t real.
Why is this plan not adopted, if it’s so “sportsmanlike” to do this kind of thing? Is there not 3 kids in a typical school who would NEVER be able to play football on their own merits, but who would be thrilled to score a touchdown for their team?
So the point is they let someone score a touchdown? That’s not sportsmanship. It has nothing to do with sports at all, really. It’s just pandering to our stupid love of self-esteem, made all the more pointless in this case because it won’t be appreciated by the recipient.
Is this YOUR wish? Because, you'd be hard pressed to identify any comment that I have made which suggests this is MY wish.
I am telling you of how the students treat these children all year long, 24/7. In school and out of school, that is what you wanted to know. RIGHT?
The experiences at one high school campus is not the experience at all high school campuses. Your daughter's high school appears to have done a marvelous job with integrating these students with their non-disabled peers. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.
What a heartless person you are.
Here’s an idea to teach teamwork and sportsmanship. Don’t stop the game and make a deal. Instead, you send in the DS kid. You also send in 3 kids whose job it is to protect the DS kid. You spend 3 weeks working with the DS kid on some specific skill they can do. Maybe you can teach them to take a handoff, and then hand the ball back off. Or maybe to catch a ball. Or something.
Then you RUN THE PLAY. The kids learn teamwork running the play. They protect their player. The player does what he is trained to do. The play works or does not, but they all work together as a team.
If you tell the other team ahead of time, they can demonstrate sportsmanship by not making fun of the DS kid, and by not going out of their way to hurt him, but to actually play the game. And when the play is over, they can all gather around and cheer the kid for doing what he was trained to do.
And nobody has to pretend they are doing something when they are not.
You know what would really give the DS kid a sense of accomplishment? Let’s get all the DS kids on a list, and each day, we could take 1 minute where we put them in the White House behind the Oval Office, and let them sign a bill, and tell them they are President. That would make them feel great, and wouldn’t cost us a dime. We’d all know they weren’t REALLY president, but they could go through life with that memory of running the country.
If being President is too much hassle, I’m sure we can dream up REAL things that are readily available to be faked, that we could do for ALL the DS, kids, not just the few that get lucky enough to have these sports opportunities.
I’m not “joking”. If this is a good idea, why aren’t people implementing it through a program? Why leave it to haphazard chance? Why just a chosen few? Let every parent sign up their DS kid, and give them all a fake set of accomplishments.
Here’s a few more: We could have some artist draw small paintings, and then let DS kids sign them and pretend they drew them. We could put DS kid’s names in the credits of major motion pictures as the writers. We could give them fake instruments and have them sit with orchestras and pretend they are playing along, for those who like music.
There is a world of fake accomplishments out there waiting for some compassionate people to build a program. No more having to depend on the kindness of a random football coach who is lucky enough to have a DS kid AND have an insurmountable lead. EVERY DS kid deserves an imaginary victory.
“There is no accomplishment in knowing how to carry a ball without dropping it, and jog to the correct end zone while people cheer you on.”
Exactly. For all the people who think this is touching, I just don’t get it. It means something to score a touchdown, but automatically loses all meaning when people let you do it. The meaning, I guess, lies in that people are nice enough to acknowledge him. Then why not give him a Really Special Super Guy medal, instead of co-opting the game? Because that’s not sportsmanship; it’s the opposite, actually. Sports has to be taken seriously, or pretended to be taken seriously, for it to have meaning. Tkae out the participants trying, and it is just a bunch of guys in ridiculous outfits running around a field with a hunk of leather.
And Tenacious 1, your words could have flowed directly from my keyboard. I agree with you completely.
Understood. But it is good, as was (in my opinion) both of the teams cited in this story doing an otherwise insignificant thing that will always be a very large event for one small soul. The players on (and fans of) both teams have every right to feel good. And who knows what effect that may have on some of them in the future. A little good news about people behaving well is especially welcome these days.
I agree with everything you said. I think some people are under the impression that everyone with Down’s Syndrome is a blithering idiot, incapable of making any kind of contribution to society on his own. It’s not true.
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I hope that the people at both schools will take time each day to be nice to all those around them, disabled or not.
While there is nothing inherently wrong with what the people at the football game did, this says much more about them and their needs then it does about the needs of the student with Downs Syndrome IMHO. If it is true that the student will not understand what he did, then, the act is all about the others feeling good about themselves. If they feel the need to pat themselves on the back for such an act of kindness for this one play, then, I ask, what do they do the other 364 days of the year? IMO, I would be more impressed with random acts of kindness that took place all year, and distributed to others as well, than this one “charitable” act.
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