Jumping Rope Without A Rope

There are times when I realize that some of the people responsible for raising the next generation of children have serious issues. I happened across an episode of Real Sports on HBO the other night that made me shake my head in disbelief.

Now, most of the time I find Bryant Gumbel to be completely pompous and arrogant, and have a hard time watching. However, the headline of the story caught my attention. The story was a recap of a 2002 report on the banning of dodgeball in schools, and about the fact that, as absurd as that was, we have now moved well beyond it.

OK. If you want to ban dodgeball because you don’t want kids getting smacked in the face with a ball, I can almost understand that reasoning. But, that is not why it’s banned. It’s banned because PE teachers do not want kids to feel the rejection of losing. Huh? Isn’t life a series of wins and losses? Shouldn’t we be teaching kids how to deal with both?

The piece de resistance of the story, however, was another segment where they interviewed a PE teacher that is “pioneering” jumping rope without a rope. That was not a typo. They are teaching kids to jump rope without a rope. The reason? That’s right. It’s because we don’t want kids to feel the failure of not being able to jump rope WITH a rope. The teacher, with a straight face, explained the triumph that kids feel when they can go forward or backward, do double jumps, double dutch, and all sorts of fancy moves that they could never do with a rope. The interviewer, obviously stunned, said “Of course they can, they don’t have a rope!”

This was followed by a segment about playing tag without touching each other. Apparently the kids play tag by stepping on each other’s shadows. Oh, and these same kids are not allowed to give high fives either. No touching. They have to give “air high fives.”

I know you think I am joking, but sadly, I am not. Watch for yourself

Your comments, please. Maybe I am missing something obvious.