Watch a bunch of elementary school age kids as they stream out of the door for recess. Running, jumping, laughing, playing. For most kids, recess at the elementary school level is little more than fifteen to twenty minutes worth of short sprints interspersed by bouts of talking and socializing, repeated over and over until the bell rings calling them back to class.
Enter the well-intended parent/football coach whose goal is to mold his young tigers into a team of winners. You know the type. Discipline. Organization. Teamwork. A well-oiled machine.
But when some kid makes a mistake or is caught fooling around, the parent/coach automatically responds with “Give me a lap.” The culprit is effectively being punished by forcing him/her to run. A behavioral psychologist once said “I could teach kids to hate Snicker bars by forcing kids to eat a Snicker bar every time they did something I thought was wrong.”
All that said, how many times does this little scenario have to be repeated before all the kids on the football team learn to associate running with punishment? How many well-intended coaches have inadvertently taught how many kids that the activity they naturally loved at recess, sprinting and socializing, is something to be avoided? It’s a form of punishment instead of a naturalistic expression of joy? If you’ve been taught to dislike running, we suggest that you rethink those days when you were in elementary school and recognize how much fun it once was to sprint!
Next post: Barefoot in the Grass
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