Should dodgeball be banned?
Many states have already begun banning dodgeball in their physical education curriculums. As of now 9,137 schools have taken dodgeball out of their programs, and all the time new schools are considering it. The reason for this is that they think our country should not have any games with human targets. Officials believe these are the first signs of how the stronger people can pick on the weaker, and they also don’t want children competing with each other. On the contrary, dodgeball is a fun way to receive exercise. It is also not an everyday activity that children should look forward to. There is no reason for it to be taken out of gym programs. In fact, it should not be banned because it’s one of first times kids will be able to deal with their problems independently and to develop a competitive sense.
However, this is really just a way of dealing with the youngsters these days do not excel in pushing through rough experiences or figure out problems on their own. According to the government officials who want dodgeball banned, the kids are even too fragile to be hit by a ball. When children have troubles, they have all the resources and more to do whatever they want: learned parents, devoted teachers, and the internet. Instead, these children just go on the computer all day long developing bad eyes, being inactive, and unhealthy. The reason the children are like this is because parents are too soft and don’t want their children to feel bad, get hurt, or really have them work for what they want like the parents had to do. The parents need to realize that this affects children in a negative manner. Dodgeball is “one of the first opportunities in life to figure out if you are strong or weak and how you’re going to deal with it” (Reilly 3). The children can find a way to know and then protect their weak aspects. Then they can find a way to emphasize their strong aspects. It is better to admit your weaknesses and work to make them stronger than being oblivious or ignoring them.
Many parents want their children to grow up in complete comfort— no pain, competition, or difficulties— all support and a ‘great job!’ after everything. But there is an error in their thinking. Knowing you are not the best at something, or being told you are not that good at something is good for you. It is what makes people successful. It motivates them to try harder so they can be the best next time. In the generation before the current one and the one before, most people had to go through a crisis in their country. In those times, children would grow up knowing they had to be strong to survive whatever they were going through. They also had to compete to have the necessary resources for success. The competition made them tough and mindful of criticism. Those children would take insults to heart and turn them into a reason to get better. But now, the kids think nothing they do is bad because to them, everything they do is good.
Their parents have never told them they have done a bad job, and that sets their standards so low they have no reason or need to try hard and excel– what they are doing is already good. Dodgeball while having a very small chance of injury is also the first time kids can become competitive like when they “stumble into the bright light of the real world and find out that, yes, there’s weak and strong and teams and sides and winning and losing” (Reilly 6) The now grown children will find they have to fight if they want to live a comfortable life. Nothing is handed to them in the real world, and not everyone is going to be a winner for participating.
In conclusion, I think that dodgeball should not be taken out of PE classes around the country. It is a chance for kids to learn their strengths, weaknesses, and how to face them as well as learning a skill you will need to throughout your life: competition; how to beat others.Everyone will need to use it sometime. It could mean the difference of getting the best job you can or a job not reaching your full potential. Besides that, dodgeball is a great opportunity to release aggression in a safe and controlled environment. So if a game of dodgeball can teach such an important skill, and be able to have such an impact on a persons life, it should not be banned but encouraged.
