What has happened to sports day? No individual races, they have all been replaced by team races. Every child does one race.
Dylan was all poised to go, shell balanced on spade. The race started, however the others in Dylan’s team had a different tactic, which involved walking slowly with the shell on the spade. They were good, they didn’t drop it (they walked with great care, like students in a deportment lesson with books balanced on their heads). Unfortunately the other teams took a different approach and one team had won before Dylan was even passed the spade. He ran like the clappers and gave it his all, bless. He was probably the fastes and he didn’t drop his shell once.
It left to me reflect on the competitive side of sports day. The team element is an important skill but it seems unfair that for some children the race is their chance to shine. Their glory moment. Some will lose – tough, but that is also a valuable lesson that needs to be learnt. I am pretty sure (the last time I looked) at we live in an incredibly competitive society, especially in the current econmic climate.
My gripe then, I don’t remember the children telling me they were doing team spelling tests anymore because some people are not very good at spellings. Or that Maths GCSE exams can be taken in pairs because some children are not very good at Maths. Yet that is the approach adopted by schools for sports day up and down the country. Why?
I believe each child should be given the chance to shine with their talent and ability. Sports day lacks that now. Thankfully Dylan was easily placated because he shines in other areas too but what if that had been ‘his thing’ and he was not given the chance to compete on an equal footing. What if that was where his main talent laid, why couldn’t he bask in the glory of being the champion. We have the olympics coming to London we are trying to inspire children in sport , well quite frankly we need to let them feel the adrenlin of winning then. That will motivate much more than team races.
When all the points were collated the mighty meteors had won and it was a proud moment as Chloe was the house captain and collected the cup!
What do you think?
