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It reminds me of the '90s, when camps and elementary schools instituted "non-competitive volleyball," where you caught it when it came to your side and you threw it back over the net. The rule was no spiking, no hitting and no fun. There are bullies in every sport. They are born, not created, and certainly not by dodgeball. Juan Marichal smashing catcher Johnny Roseboro over the head with a baseball bat; John McEnroe throwing his racquet at a referee; and the game of hockey, in general. My advice to parents and educators would be get the kids away from the Game Boys and computers, stop using them as baby-sitters and get them out into the yard, playing games, exercising and yeah, maybe getting beaned by a high, hard one. I sat with my Aunt Ruthie and brother-in-law Jeff the other day, recalling games we played, tame and treacherous. Jeff and I got hit with a dodgeball when we were kids, and the darnedest thing is we grew up and had families, held down jobs, had respectable IQs and actually respect our fellow man and woman. Amazing! If a kid is a bully on the playing field, he is pretty likely to be growing up in a house full of bullies, if not physically abusive, perhaps verbally. Don't blame a game; blame the family. We wondered if, on the streets of Scottsdale, anyone is playing stickball, Wiffleball, kick the can, red rover, freeze tag, S-P-U-D, Johnny on the pony, ring-o-leevio, red light-green light, hit the penny or that wonderful game reminiscent of two-story houses and apartment buildings, stoop ball. Have we become too sophisticated a society where those games are old hat, or have we chosen not to pass them on to a new generation? Kids are bored? We give 'em Nintendo. An hour to go before dinner? We plop them down in front of the TV. Instead, give them a stick of chalk, let them draw on the sidewalk or tell them if they step on a crack, they won't break their mother's back, contrary to popular folklore. Want them to read a book? Suggest How to Jump Off a Bed by Hugo Furst. We live in a place where it's sunny 95 percent of the time. Except for the days when it's too hot, why don't we tell kids to go out and play? No wonder we have a nation of obese kids, and we can stop blaming the fast-food companies. Concerned about your kids' weight? Give 'em a piece of fruit instead of fried fish sticks. And don't blame lack of parenting on the economy with two-income households! I grew up in a house where both my parents worked, and still managed to have dinner together and sit around and talk about our day. Kids have it too easy these days because most of us are too lazy. There was a psychologist in the late '80s who spoke of the "hurried child" - one who was rushed into teenhood and adulthood and never had a chance to be a kid. Dodgeball? Come on! I sometimes wonder if Seven Minutes in Heaven and Spin the Bottle aren't better than the marginally kid-rated movies that are breeding a generation of those kids from Village of the Damned or Children of the Corn. The next time I see my nephews, I may just give them a wedgie, and I don't expect it will make them the next generation of Columbine Kiddies. A little childhood
never hurt anybody. Duck duck goose, anyone? Barry Kluger |
