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Written by Vince
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Sunday, 12 October 2008 07:29 |
When I was a kid, I swam at the pool, I played basketball and baseball at the park, I ran around the neighborhood, I climbed every wall, tree, building, and stairwell I could find, and I did it from the time the sun came up until it was dinner time. When I got a little older, I got roller skates and rolled around for awhile until I outgrew them. fBut with the help of a hacksaw, I cut one in half, nailed the pieces to a board and made a skateboard (real skateboards weren't even available yet). It wasn't long after that I got a bicycle and pedaled my way around the city. When the weather changed and we couldn't ride because of the snow, we went to nearest big hill and went sledding. Eventually we would become bored and start snowball fights. And when that became boring, we threw snowballs at cars and were chased down by teenagers.
Some of the things I learned to do as a child came from hanging around other kids in the neighborhood, and if not there, we learned it in gym class. It's been so long now I can't remember exactly how many days a week we had gym class but I think it was two or three days a week. Gym class consisted of gathering a group of kids in the auditorium and allowing them to let off steam and energy by participating in various activities. Some of those activities would be considered questionable and possibly banned these days. I can't imagine any school that would allow a kid to climb a rope to a 30 foot ceiling without having a helmet on their head and a safety net underneath. That said, in my day, we were given the opportunity to plummet to our deaths on a weekly basis.
I think gym class has been completely removed from some if not all schools these days. I'm not sure if it's funding or if it has to do with it being considered "cruel". If you think about it, gym class promotes the idea that not everyone gets to be a winner. And these days it seems like everyone has to be a winner... even the losers. That's why games like dodge ball, a perfect analogy for life, were banned even before gym class itself became extinct. Let's break it down... sometimes you're on the wrong side, it can deal you a bad hand, it can be extremely painful, it can be rewarding, and sometimes even the anticipated winner is a loser. Sounds like life doesn't it?
When looking back at my childhood, I remember one overweight kid. One. ONE! How amazing is that, especially when I look around today and see that most kids are overweight. This is not an attack on overweight kids although it might be an indirect attack on their parents because that's who I blame. I blame them and society as a whole for not allowing or even forcing kids to be kids. You'll hear parents make excuses about how the kids sit in front of the TV and video games all day. But whose fault is that? Or my other favorite is... "it's not safe to let them outside". Are you freaking kidding me? In an era where helmets didn't even exist, I managed to NOT kill myself in many ways you CAN. We all did. I remember making a jumping ramp at the bottom of a hill with some trashcans and some plywood. I nearly killed myself all of the time when I jumped that on my homemade skateboard or bicycle.
Let's recap: I rode my sled the wrong way into a tree and broke my nose and went unconscious for a couple of minutes. I was hit so hard playing football in the park without any pads or helmet that I got the wind knocked out of me and was given mouth-to-mouth in order to be able to breath. I fell out of a tree from about 15-20 feet and landed on bricks. I broke my thumb running down the stairs at school when my hand got jammed under the banister head. I broke my toe running at the pool. I broke my hand when I got hit with a broom. While running through the woods at summer camp, I stepped on a nail and put it through my foot. I smashed my crotch more times than I can even remember jumping my bike on something that shouldn't have been jumped. I ripped my back open on the diving board doing something else I shouldn't have been doing. I cut open my hand while playing with a knife. I stabbed myself in the leg while playing with another knife in the car no less. And these are the things I can remember off the top of my head. And speaking of heads, did I mention we didn't have helmets?
The only kid in our neighborhood that did get seriously hurt was electrocuted when he climbed a telephone pole and touched an electric line... and he lived. We thought he died but when in fact, he just disappeared for a while and showed up in school a few years later and was surprisingly fine. He stayed away from those telephone poles though. :)
So why all the hostility? Because the government just released new exercise guidelines and I'm appalled at how low the bar is set for children. And the funny part is they claim there's been an increase in the amount of exercise we all need. Adults can do whatever they want but the kids should be given the opportunity to experience anything and everything. And if that means you have to take the remote control or game controller out of their hands then so be it. So what does the government think your kids need? I quote:
"Children and adolescents should do an hour or more of moderate-intensity to vigorous aerobic physical activity each day. That should include vigorous activity at least three days a week, and it should include bone-strengthening activities such as running, jumping rope, skipping, playing
hopscotch and muscle-strengthening activities such as tug of war, modified sit-ups and push-ups."
Let me guess... "modified sit-ups" because regular sit-ups are too dangerous? I give up.
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Last Updated on Monday, 13 October 2008 20:02 |
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