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Re: one parent's view

Very few look at these and other male atheletes, icing their knees after
walks to the corner store, and shed a tear.  Parents who relentlessly
force young kids to be great -- against the kids' desires -- will likely
soon grow bored; and those who don't are jerks regardless of their
child's gender.

Mark

On Thu, 25 Jul 1996 WHITNEMR@snymorva.cs.snymor.edu wrote:

>    While I heartily join the praises of the women's gymnastic's team, there
> are a couple of points I am uncomfortable with.  Without a doubt, this
> performance will be one of the ones they show clips of for years to come.
> And we are all correct in giving the gymnast personal credit for courage,
> spirit, and fortitude. But there are still things that nag at me.
>    The team would have won the gold anyway (20/20 hindsight), but Kerri
> didn't know that. But it bugs me that after the first vault, when the injury
> was sustained, there are rules in the Olympics that PREVENT even the most
> cursory look by a doctor. Only the judges can declare the time suspended for
> an examination. If she had asked for the time, she more than likely would have had to forfeit the second vault (their nice like that). Kerri is not only brave,
> she's incredibly lucky. What if the injury had been bad enough to affect her the rest of her life? Oh boy, she can't walk, but gosh she has that pretty medal
> to look at from her wheelchair. Injured atheletes don't make indorsements, they
> just fade away.
>    A lot is also being made of the fact that she is 19 years old and can make
> her own decisions. That is absolutely true. But most of this coaching took placea long time ago. Thises girls (and yes, at the time, they are little girls),
> are signed up, trained, yelled at etc when they are 7 or 8. That is NOT a 19
> year old woman! Kerri had been programed since she was a little girl (through
> what a lot would consider abuse in any other context) to do just what she did.
> I have a 7 year old son, and I would never even consider allowing him to be
> treated that way. They are not capable of making the decision to be the best
> in the world when they are 7. Their parents have made the decision for them.
> While we're at it, maybe we could encourage some more 7 year olds to go die in
> airplane crashes too.
>    I think we can learn about debate coaching from this. If yelling and abusing
> the debaters is what it takes to get a national champion (and I'm not trying to
> imply that this is, or has happened), then I guess I'm happy coaching non-
> champions. They're still champions to me.
>
>                                Mark Whitney
>                                SUNY morrisville
>
References:
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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