Connecticut's new policy to teach life skills to teenagers

[lawrocket 3]

Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, which governs high school sports, is adopting a rule that will automatically suspend a high school football coach if his team wins by more than 50 points.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060525/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbo_football_blowouts_1

So, this sends a message to kids and coaches. "If you are ahead, you better stop trying. If you are behind, you should stop trying. Going through the motions is a good thing."

Kids get their feelings hurt when they lose big. Well, welcome to the real world. Sometimes you just get beaten down, and the hits just keep on coming. Eventually, people need some training, guidance and experience on how to take your lumps and move on. It seems to me, child and high school athletics is one of the best places where this can be done, and where parents and coaches can provide guidance on how to move forward.

Add to that other problems with football - if you slow down, you get hurt. While counterintuitive, in football aggressive play leads to less injuries, much like a sharp knife is safer than a dull knife.

I wonder where else this sort of thing can occur:
- AIRTEC must randomly deprogram its CYPRES so that FXC doesn't feel left out;
- Michael Schumacher must pit and place a governor on his vehicle if he leads by more than 6 seconds;
- Baseball players with slugging percentages below .450 shall use aluminum bats;
- Freeze hell over if the Maple Leafs haven't won another Stanley Cup by 2012.

I really think stuff like this is a horrible idea. I think giving kids trophies for coming in last place is not the best idea. Perhaps teaching kids and letting them understand that the world has winners and losers is not so bad. Teaching them that sometimes you win big and lose big ain't such a bad thing. Teaching them that trophies for everyone devalues the meaning of a trophy is not such a bad thing.

Most importantly, teaching kids that getting your ass kicked can build character is a noble goal. I've discovered in my life that losing builds character - winning merely REVEALS it.

The animated film, "The Incredibles" had a great quote: "Remember the bad guys on those shows you used to watch on Saturday morning? Well, these guys are not like those guys. They won't exercise restraint because you're children." It's one of the better quotes I've ever heard in a movie, because that's real life advice from a parent to her children.

Perhaps a real world lesson should be, "You can't spend your life thinking that when the going gets tough, people will be there to bail you out or make sure things go easy on you." You have to learn to accept defeat and the occasional routing.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[kelel01 1]

Ah, Phase 10 of the Pussification of Americans has finally begun. Sweet.