4.03.2009

Skateboarding In Schools? Who Would've Thought!


My commentary today is on another Pioneer Press article, this one written about the incorporation of skateboards into the physical education curriculum. A school has spent over $3000 on boards, helmets and pads for the kids to use to learn skateboarding in class. Educators cite the childhood obesity epidemic and kids’ perceived waning interest in school as reasons to bring something hip and fresh into the classroom. And skateboarding, no doubt, is hip and fresh. It seems that 90’s skate culture and the success of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series of video games has finally wormed its way into the public school system. Skater punks who could be found grinding away on school property after school, despised by the faculty, are now being nurtured by the Man himself.

There’s no question that skating will result in more active kids. As more and more kids become prone to sitting in front of their HDTVs playing Xbox 360 instead of being active and social outdoors, skateboarding at least cracks open the door to a more active lifestyle. A main goal of the program is to introduce an exciting activity that kids can do even when their friends aren’t around. This is good. That being said, I do have some reservations about the program.

First, and probably least in the educators’ minds, is the cost of skateboarding. For any other sport you need a ball. Maybe a racket, net or stick as well. But for skating, you need a board, helmet, kneepads, elbowpads, and wrist guards. That’s not only a lot of equipment to buy , but it’s a lot to store and keep track of when not in use.

Secondly, I don’t know that I like solitary activities being introduced in P.E. Phys. Ed was always about learning to do stuff as a team, fostering cooperation, and learning how to win as well as how to lose. I can’t think of any school sport that is not team based. Even sports like track, cross country, wrestling, and bowling are done in teams. Learning how to work in a team is something that everyone needs to learn how to do, and every minute spent skateboarding is one less spent participating on team.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, skateboarding is a blatant glorification of youth culture. You can skate until a certain age, and then you simply can’t any longer. And that age is usually in your late twenties. Of all the kids in my class who skated in middle and high school, I can’t think of a single one who is still doing it. The Friday night basketball games where men of all ages, from 20 to 60, can play and compete and have fun just aren’t possible with skateboarding. I know, I know, you can say the same thing about football, wrestling, and a bunch of other sports - that older people can’t play them. But at least in those sports older people can still demonstrate skills and techniques, even if they can’t do them at full speed. Coaching is still a very real possibility. I think it would be really hard to do any kind of serious coaching when you yourself can no longer even ollie.

A fourth issue that I will just briefly mention is that skateboarding has traditionally been a very rebellious sort of activity. The whole lifestyle, from board art to skate mags, is loud, rough, and raucous. Maybe this is changing, maybe not. I don’t know. But it is something we should consider or at least look into if we want to teach all kids how to skate.

I hope this program works out. I really do. A lot of money has been invested to the sake of the kids. But caution must be taken when presenting it to them as a viable alternative to traditional sports, because skateboarding is not that. It is an extreme sport, and rightly so. The culture is fast and furious, the rate of injury high, the entry cost significant, and the windows of participation intense and brief. Skateboarding certainly has fared better than rollerblading or BMX riding, but it remains a sport that I think should be undertaken at one’s own risk, and then only out of one’s own curiosity and interest.




_DZ


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