Telford Junior League – made up of 20 divisions ranging from under-10s to under-16s – now records all games as either 1-0 wins or 1-1 draws.Yes, I know what you’re thinking…
Bosses at the league have defended the decision to withhold the number of goals scored which they claim will spare the youngsters the humiliation of losing badly.*sigh*
And it seems, while they have a thing about sparing youngsters ‘embarrassment’, they are totally lacking in that themselves, as they are quite prepared to lie:
Unrepentant league bosses have defended the policy, saying it is in line with Football Association guidelines, which the FA disputes.Whoops! Bit of an open goal there, Telford Junior League…
The FA says it has no rules relating to results above the age of eight.
Stephen Clarke, manager of the under-11s Wrekin Panthers team, backed the move.Are you utterly mad, man?
He said: ‘The children’s welfare is paramount. The winners have three points on the website if they win and the children who lose 20-0 would feel very disheartened if it was on the website.
‘They might think of not playing. I think it’s a very good idea.’
But Mr Clarke added there must come a point when players had to accept defeat.By which time, it’s far too late, and you’ve nurtured a generation of whinging nancy-boys.
He said: ‘I think probably by the age of 15 then they have an understanding that life is a bit of a competition and we are competing with other people.’
Those that aren’t simply kicking everyone’s arse at online gaming, that is…
Bloody Norah! I remember getting back to back 18-1 pummellings once. Did me no harm ( although I did score our lone goal on both occasions)
ReplyDelete:-)
Ye gods, don't show this to the educational progressives!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there are plenty of them out there who'd like all exam results to be adjusted to either A* or A for the same reason.
After all, teachers are already told not to underline more than three spellings in a piece of work or to corrent a pupil's grammar, as well as being required to mark in green pen - less threatening and confrontational than red, apparently.
Life is full of disappointments and is competitive and that has to be learnt at an early age. If shielded from that fact as children no wonder they grow up unable to cope with the realities of life and become feckless and lazy thinking the world owes them a living. This of course is just one example among many of how progressive thinking is reducing standards, values and morals in society today.
ReplyDelete"And all shall have prizes" ..
ReplyDeleteGod bloody help us !
If they don't want to record big scores then just record the games as win, lose or draw. Simples.
ReplyDeleteBut kids are going to have to get used to abject failure at some point anyway.
When I used to work for a Nottinghamshire weekly paper there was a team called Christian Youth that used to get hammered every week (hammered as in 17 nil) we used to look out every week to see how badly they did.
One time the sports editor asked why they bothered to play and was told that the kids still enjoyed it.
Good for them. Probably half the team ended up playing for Derby. The more talented half just gave up.
Yes... and we're seeing a generation of these little monsters coming up fast, right now.
ReplyDeleteThe 'self-esteem' movement, which is what's at the root of this, has left us with a host of uneducated, now ineducable, spoilt whiners who 'can't afford to get on the housing ladder,' 'can't get well paid jobs', and who truly believe the world owes then an iPad and a 'eco-friendly' BMW.
In the States, this what underlies the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement - a generation of kids whining that they can't walk into $100,000 jobs with their 'degrees' in art theory and environmental studies.
Never told they are wrong. Never allowed to learn that for most animals, man incuded, existence is a struggle with a tough, unforgiving universe.
Stephen Clarke, manager of the under-11s Wrekin Panthers team, backed the move.
ReplyDeleteHe went on to say "I was assessed with an IQ of 78, but I'd be happier if IQs were just smoothed out at 100 for everyone's sake".
What absolute tosh. AND we all know it!
ReplyDeleteI once played for 215 (Swansea Squadron) of the Air Training Corps (Cadets)when we were beaten in our first game, 24 - 0!!!!! Honest!
So I can very confidently state that IT DOES NO HARM AT ALL.
I'll bet that chap is a 'diversity' freak as well!
I remember losing 4-3 in the final at school - I was the goalie.
ReplyDeleteIt still wrankles todays, but the ´pain´of that defeat taught me that losing sucks and is to be avoided at all costs.
Wiping 15 yr old´s bums for them will result in a nation of weak-willed, lilly-livered social-retards.
Pants - too late.
Football aside, I once went to a school athletics day where the junior school in question had decided -- as was the fashion back in the early 'eighties -- to dispense with all competitive sports. Gone were the egg and spoon race (greta for kids who wouldn't win the 50 yard dash) and throwing rings over wooden blocks (likewise good for kids who would trail behind in the throwing a cricket ball contest) to be replaced with...
ReplyDeletewell, nothing.
There were a lot of kids wandering about amid enthusiastic 'teachers' not knowing what to do. Picking up a bean bag, wondering what to do with it, wandering off to stare at a set of rings that were laid out (non-competitively) of course and not having a clue that they were meant to 'express' themselves and thus avoid coming last.
It was, without doubt, the most dull afternoon I have ever spent, and the kids were bored senseless.
Anyways, the trend shifted from such no-contest tripe to going back to kids actually running races and wanting to win. But too late for me. Thanks to 'progressive' education (though not quite called that then) it was three hours of my life lost forever.
Mind you, when one of my sons played in a junior football league the league insisted that no matter how big the scores were they could never be published in the local paper as bigger than 14-0. I recall my son and his teammates being disgusted that they had trounced someone 26-0 and it had been 'reduced' to save face. But they equally knew that scores of 14-0 were almost certainly a lie.
Lying to children, oh noes! Couldn't happen, could it?
"Did me no harm.."
ReplyDeleteIndeed! What sort of people are we training for the future?
It rather reminds me of the opening 'titles' of 'Educating Essex', where the teacher is telling one of the school's unteachables that 'you will never find more patient people than here'.
I always wonder if that's doing them any favours, since their eventual bosses aren't likely to be so...
"After all, teachers are already told not to underline more than three spellings in a piece of work or to corrent a pupil's grammar.."
*weeps*
"If shielded from that fact as children no wonder they grow up unable to cope with the realities of life..."
Spot on!
"One time the sports editor asked why they bothered to play and was told that the kids still enjoyed it."
And isn't that the main aim anyway?
"Yes... and we're seeing a generation of these little monsters coming up fast, right now."
ReplyDeleteDavid Thompson has video to prove it!
"...the ´pain´of that defeat taught me that losing sucks and is to be avoided at all costs."
Harking back to 'Educating Essex' again, one of the kids - unwilling to do an exam - told his teacher that he'd 'rather not try and fail than try and fail'..
I wanted to cry.
"...to be replaced with...
well, nothing. "
Probably not a concern for those who view school merely as a free child-minding service!