Dodgeball Now Being Eliminated as a Form of ‘Bullying’

Have any of you noticed that normal kid activities have now been deemed problematic?  Already, in America, some high schools are getting rid of football teams, stressing “non-competitive activities” instead.  In Philadelphia, the birthplace of freedom, teachers at Independence Charter offered yoga as a healthful alternative to competition.

And now Canadians are getting into the game…. Or, out of it as the case may be.

The Canadian Society for the Study of Education at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences has targeted the age old tradition of dodgeball. They describe it as a dangerous activity which teaches an “unethical system of oppression” and “legalizes bullying.”

Um…. I guess someone at The Canadian Society for the Study of Education at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences must’ve been picked last for their dodgeball team. 

Most of us have played this game as a kid – where two teams face off, throwing rubber balls at members of the opposite team.  When hit, a player has to sit down.  The team with the last person standing wins. But this Canadian group believes it’s about more than just a strong arm and red rubber balls.  Researchers believe this “oppressive” game is about “hierarchies of privilege based on athletic skill.”

Wait, what?  They helpfully clarified.

“Dodgeball is not just unhelpful to the development of kind and gentle children who will become decent citizens of a liberal democracy. It is actively harmful to this process,” they said.

Well, at least they still at least pretend to want a liberal democracy.  That’s something.  

The Daily Wirehas more:

“As we consider the potential of physical education to empower students by engaging them in critical and democratic practices, we conclude that the hidden curriculum offered by dodgeball is antithetical to this project, even when it reflects the choices of the strongest and most agile students,” the researchers claim.

Ultimately dodgeball’s “hidden curriculum” reinforces the “five faces of oppression,” they claim, as it encourages the “marginalization, powerlessness, and helplessness of those perceived as weaker individuals through the exercise of violence and dominance by those who are considered more powerful.”

The new wave of rejecting normal “kid activities” because they are now deemed problematic is antithetical to the spirit of America’s Founding Fathers.  In fact, healthy competition is the bedrock of how America operates.  

Let’s hope this anti-dodgeball nonsense stays on the northern side of the border.  I’m not sure what will happen to our nation if we snuff out all of our children’s instincts toward healthy competition, but I certainly don’t want to find out. 

Image Credit: U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Dennis Sloan

Hat Tip: The Daily Wire