i think sport, exspecially in schools,
should always be mixed.
Also i think the competetivness of american school sport is kind of toxic,
it should be about having fun
Ultimate Frisbee did this by forcing a certain number of boys/girl per team. If you don’t impose that you end up with a boys team anyway at high level.
This is basketball, a sport that rewards tallness. By eighth grade boys are on average taller than girls. Even before you look at other gender differences, girls would be at significant disadvantage.
Many/most people are competitive, and competitiveness doesn’t have to be toxic. It’s fine for you not to be competitive, but people are, and it’s unreasonable to ask them to repress that part of their personality
Given this example of eighth grade basketball, my kid technically had tryouts but everyone made the team. It was a small school though, and bigger schools may be different. He came in cold, not knowing the game but is a natural athlete. He had fun and learned the game and that one year was enough. I pushed him to play this year because he had been interested, he had a bunch of friends in the team, and he is an athlete. Importantly he’s not really tall enough for basketball, so eighth grade was likely his last chance to play. (It was funny to watch his crew of three soccer players and a hockey player take over the team and try to adjust their skills to a new sport)
Sports tends to get competitive in high school, especially for varsity teams, but there are usually options. For example my kid made the varsity soccer team after competitive tryouts. Part of the competitive nature was encouraging the kids to play competitive club soccer in the off season. To secure his starting spot, my kids spent the off season lifting weights, gaining about 30 lbs of muscle while cutting any remaining fat. Yes it was competitive. But he also joined a town league and a rec league for fun off season because he just loved playing: non-competitive, no tryouts
i think sport, exspecially in schools, should always be mixed
At the middle school age range, girls are typically bigger and stronger than their male peers. Boys don’t catch up until 14-16, at which point they rapidly put on height and mass to exceed their girl peers.
Yeah, that will work out well. I cannot think of a sport that is played in school that would fair to the girls if all sports were mixed teams. By the time kids are 13-14 years old, the boys are starting to get to be bigger, taller, faster, and stronger. And the disparity only gets worse as they age.
And one of the driving tenants of sports IS to teach competitiveness.
Why should we be teaching competitiveness? That’s how you turn society into individuals who only look out for their own needs and are apathetic when you do things like a fascist coup. Oh wait…
Nah, I’d much rather be teaching kids cooperation.
(Sports are still great, but not for the reason of teaching competitiveness).
I feel like that could be fixed by just doing a weight class so gender does not become the factor but overall strength and that also gives the opportunity for weaker boys to play sports and not get boxed out in boys only sports and stronger girls “like girls with PCOS” to not dominate girl Sports.
Or maybe it’s already fixed by larger schools having multiple teams, such as varsity, Jv, freshmen. Or different leagues, like rec leagues, town leagues. Or gym class sports which are never competitive.
But it’s ridiculous to think it fair if the high level teams are essentially all boys, and the girls are stuck on the crappy team with boys who can’t play. No one will be happy with that
The kids WILL turn everything into a competition no matter what you think you are doing to prevent that. Humans are naturally competitive. Like it or not.
i think sport, exspecially in schools, should always be mixed. Also i think the competetivness of american school sport is kind of toxic, it should be about having fun
Ultimate Frisbee did this by forcing a certain number of boys/girl per team. If you don’t impose that you end up with a boys team anyway at high level.
This is basketball, a sport that rewards tallness. By eighth grade boys are on average taller than girls. Even before you look at other gender differences, girls would be at significant disadvantage.
Many/most people are competitive, and competitiveness doesn’t have to be toxic. It’s fine for you not to be competitive, but people are, and it’s unreasonable to ask them to repress that part of their personality
can everyone play basketball in us schools (if they offer it) or is this like limited (i mean tryouts?)
It’s going to depend on the school and level
Given this example of eighth grade basketball, my kid technically had tryouts but everyone made the team. It was a small school though, and bigger schools may be different. He came in cold, not knowing the game but is a natural athlete. He had fun and learned the game and that one year was enough. I pushed him to play this year because he had been interested, he had a bunch of friends in the team, and he is an athlete. Importantly he’s not really tall enough for basketball, so eighth grade was likely his last chance to play. (It was funny to watch his crew of three soccer players and a hockey player take over the team and try to adjust their skills to a new sport)
Sports tends to get competitive in high school, especially for varsity teams, but there are usually options. For example my kid made the varsity soccer team after competitive tryouts. Part of the competitive nature was encouraging the kids to play competitive club soccer in the off season. To secure his starting spot, my kids spent the off season lifting weights, gaining about 30 lbs of muscle while cutting any remaining fat. Yes it was competitive. But he also joined a town league and a rec league for fun off season because he just loved playing: non-competitive, no tryouts
At the middle school age range, girls are typically bigger and stronger than their male peers. Boys don’t catch up until 14-16, at which point they rapidly put on height and mass to exceed their girl peers.
Yeah, that will work out well. I cannot think of a sport that is played in school that would fair to the girls if all sports were mixed teams. By the time kids are 13-14 years old, the boys are starting to get to be bigger, taller, faster, and stronger. And the disparity only gets worse as they age.
And one of the driving tenants of sports IS to teach competitiveness.
Why should we be teaching competitiveness? That’s how you turn society into individuals who only look out for their own needs and are apathetic when you do things like a fascist coup. Oh wait…
Nah, I’d much rather be teaching kids cooperation.
(Sports are still great, but not for the reason of teaching competitiveness).
Competition is literally the basis of almost every sport. How would hockey, for example, be played without competition?
I’m saying we shouldn’t teach competitiveness as a value in and of itself. Competition in sports is fine.
I feel like that could be fixed by just doing a weight class so gender does not become the factor but overall strength and that also gives the opportunity for weaker boys to play sports and not get boxed out in boys only sports and stronger girls “like girls with PCOS” to not dominate girl Sports.
Or maybe it’s already fixed by larger schools having multiple teams, such as varsity, Jv, freshmen. Or different leagues, like rec leagues, town leagues. Or gym class sports which are never competitive.
But it’s ridiculous to think it fair if the high level teams are essentially all boys, and the girls are stuck on the crappy team with boys who can’t play. No one will be happy with that
The kids WILL turn everything into a competition no matter what you think you are doing to prevent that. Humans are naturally competitive. Like it or not.
In my experience, it’s the parents that need to make every Little League Rec scrimmage into the final game of the world series.