Well, duh.
U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill said what we all knew: Cheerleading is not a sport.
As the father of two daughters who was told that the huge bond floated to build a new football stadium would "benefit the girls as much as the boys" in our school district, I've just got to say, someone had to finally admit this.
Labels: bread and circuses, education, school
posted by Matt G @ 6:04 PM
4 Comments:
Honestly I don't care a fig about Title IX, but I would like to see cheerleading regarded as a sport... not because I respect it. I don't respect most "real" sports.
Because it's fucking dangerous. It has all the hazards of gymnastics, except the coaches are usually rank amateurs who have not the sliver of the safety and physical training a gymnastic coach does. The sooner it's treated with the seriousness the potential for injury deserves, the fewer young women that are going to be paralyzed or killed at "just" cheerleading.
'Rat, I don't give much of a damn about sports, frankly. But I do get pissed at inequity, and I do, as an adult, see the point in actually teaching real Physical Education.
My daughter hates her PE teacher, because he makes them break a hard sweat every day in class. The first time she told me this, I asked what her regimen was. It sounded mildly strenuous. At the end of the year when she was ranting about him, I asked about what they did, and it was really impressive. That my daughter and her class had clearly progressed through the year was lost on her, but not on me. She's far more fit than I was at that age, and will likely learn some lessons about fitness that I did not, with my completely lame-ass PE teachers.
If the girls get the same amount of equipment and money put into their fitness as the boys do, then I will be satisfied. Frankly, they could have a co-ed nutritional portion to it, too. PE is not just sweat, and nutrition is not just the boring part of Health class.
I'd rather see real phys ed taught, yes. For that matter I'd like to see collegiate sport die completely, that's not why kids should be there and it's a waste of ambition to train them primarily to play a sport only a handful will go on to play professionally.
But, I think both collegiate sport and cheerleaders won't go away, so I would prefer to see cheerleading taken seriously enough that its danger factor is taken seriously as well.
Agree LabRat, good friend of mine's little sister broke her neck at a college game as a cheerleader (they missed the catch on her). She was a 10 year gymnast! Re Title IX- it's ONLY about the money...
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