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Originally Posted by jvriezen
I read the article, generally liked it and posted a link to it on a social media page. I got some strong negative comments about the blog post, some of which are quite valid.
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I had a lengthy discussion about this with a good friend of mine, who's also an alumni. I must say that after the discussion, I do think that the article actually wasn't as well written as it could have been. While he does mention as the fine print that he does not mean to denigrate sports the tone used in the article suggests the contrary.
I think I was blinded because of my involvement and only saw what he promoted in FIRST, but I believe in FIRST as one other sport or activity that should be made available to everyone. This article conflicts with me a little bit.
It's a lot about how you say it. On a second read, I discovered a lot of assumptions about sports that combined give a very unfair picture of High School Sports.
Some examples:
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If you spend any time in the stands at a basketball or football game, for example, you can’t help but notice the constant barrage of verbal abuse hurled at the referees
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At a typical high school sporting event, the only role girls play is to cheer for the boys
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Learning skills they’ll actually use later in life
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You won’t catch a robotics coach in an angry, red-faced tirade yelling at their players or slamming clip boards on the ground.
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It's great to have a supporter of FIRST, but if we're to make FIRST successful and keep its values (like so many have talked about), I think broadcasting inaccurate assumptions about competing activities isn't the best way.