Re: The Hate Directed at the LGBTQ+
Posted: Wed May 24, 2023 3:32 pm
If you had a broad based IMG system that might improve the education for everyone else by removing the "athlete first" kids and they exist.jhu72 wrote: ↑Wed May 24, 2023 3:16 pmI don't have any idea how the French handle "youth" soccer. I do think the concept of using age as a proxy for "fair competition" as we do is anything but. Same for gender, as my Linda Johnson example illustrates. The concept of using "school class" as we do for high school teams creates an unfair competition, easily gamed, for spots on the team. We also have a problem with the concept of the "goal of playing a sport", the lesson it teaches, etc. There is more than a little hypocrisy attached to that discussion.ohmilax34 wrote: ↑Wed May 24, 2023 12:16 pmI think this would be a very interesting conversation to have. Maybe Americans focus on the competitive lessons sports teach to athletes and we value the competition because our culture puts so much emphasis on the individual. In other countries around the world, maybe the importance of sports is different. Maybe it's more about the good of the collective/community. I imagine the soccer courts in the Paris suburbs where so many of the French National soccer team grew up playing don't have age groups with kids and parents gaming the system. I imagine that a 8 year old could play against a 15 year old there. The benefits of that would be the same as a Montessori school.jhu72 wrote: ↑Wed May 24, 2023 12:02 pm ... maybe there is a problem (a big one in my opinion) with how we organize our sports teams. Take a lesson from auto racing / horse racing. Age based / gender based "sport classes" is the only reason we are having either of these discussions. This is again tied to how we view the goal of sports.
I think educational system based athletics have failed us as a society. We have tried to correct those with Title IX, which has made even more problems -- transexual sports, etc. I would suggest the simplest solution is to revamp all educational system based sports. Make them co-ed in all cases and unlimited in participation -- ie., the recreational model -- if you wish to participate, you are on the team, regardless of skill / ability.
Separate all single sex teams from educational institutions, make those separate club teams, not funded by the educational institutions. Goes for high school and college / university. These teams will have to become self-sustaining.
This also lowers costs for the educational institutions and generally lowers tuition for students. The educational institutions as corporations of course should be allowed to invest in club teams, part of their endowment, but the club teams have to be money making for profit entities.
I think this makes a lot more sense than what we do today.