Whatever happened to letting kids be kids?
While I can see a little validity in some of what is being said, in my opinion society is trying to control far too much in areas that should be left alone and far too little in areas where attention is needed.
The province of Ontario (and no doubt others will wind up following suit) has announced it is changing the rules when it comes to competitive sports, namely soccer. Beginning this year, soccer leagues will no longer be permitted to keep score during game play, this way every child will feel like a winner. Hmmm... Proponents of the shift say there is too much emphasis on the competitiveness of the sport and too little on confidence building and skill development. Maybe so, but don't you think the kids involved will be keeping score in their heads anyway? Why do you think they play? They play - or rather they should - play for fun but they also play to win. And is there really anything wrong with that so long as they are taught to win and lose graciously?
Competitive sports have been around since the beginning of time and now we're going to say that's it, that's all?
And as if taking the score out of the game isn't enough of a change, the Soccer Association of Midlake, Ontario has opted to take the concept another step further. With the "growing concern over the effects of competition in youth sports," the association has announced kids in this town can no longer use a ball when they play soccer. WHAT?!? No ball? What is the point of a bunch of kids running around the field kicking air? Now this is just plain and simple silly. "By removing the ball, it's absolutely impossible to say 'this team won' and 'this team lost' or 'this child is better at soccer than that child' says an association spokesperson.
It's also impossible to say you have played an actual game of soccer.
I believe it's important to do all we can to boost confidence in our children, to help them grow up into strong, intelligent and capable adults, but is this really the way to go about doing that? I think not.
You win some, you lose some. That is the reality of life and a person needs to deal with that. If you're handed a win your entire childhood, how are you ever going to cope when the real world comes knocking? You won't, end of story.
