The Guardian praising sports day at school. As the commenters below the line point out – there is some nice stereotyping going on here and how odd that the bastion of “all must have prizes” should be praising the very anathema of that…
All that said, I didn’t find sports days humiliating – as one of the Groan’s stereotyped brainy kids. I simply opted out. Refusing to take part was a fairly simple matter. I was once taken to task by one of the senior girls who accused me of a lack of loyalty when I refused to represent the house at sports day. I replied that loyalty is earned and as I was placed in the house by some whim or other, I owed it and her no loyalty whatsoever and I would not run, jump or otherwise on its behalf. She wasn’t over impressed, but as I was never asked again, objective achieved.
Sports days for me were spent sitting under a shady tree well away from the action with a good book. I wasn’t alone and the school let the little group of refusniks get on with it undisturbed. Presumably the teachers realised that press-ganging us onto the field would be a massive waste of time and effort as well as potentially spoiling the day for the enthusiasts. In this, they were correct. They could have forced me to the starting line but they would never have forced me to run – or jump.
So, all in all, the Groan is wrong on that one – the brainy kids weren’t humiliated and no, those who were good at it were not necessarily thick, either. They just liked sport. Which is fine. it’s the forcing those of us who did not like it that was the problem – and on that one day, they refrained. Come the autumn term it was back to normal and being forced out onto the football pitch.
Boss has just taken her kid to a sports day a couple of weeks ago. Apparently they don’t win owt, they just compete. If that’s what the Guardian is bigging up then it’s bollocks.
I was crap at sports at school but I remember one sports day when I won the discus due to a freak gust of wind. When I told my PE teacher, he flat refused to beleive I’d won anything and walked off, the twat
I was good at both sports and academia at school. I took the sports to be a blessed relief to the academia to be honest; something that could be done with a modicum of natural talent rather than having to learn everything all the time.
I was a junior sprint champion, swam for the school and the Scouts, did Javelin, Long Jump and High Jump, opening Bat for the school team, Centre, wing or Full Back at rugby, and the family sport was Golf, so I had a 9 handicap at that.
The most important thing I learned about competitive sports is …. knowing how to lose, and with grace. Because the inevitable fact of losing sometimes, is one of the most important lessons in life. It gives you perspective, and tolerance of others mistakes as well as your own.