Context: For many years, “Dodgeball” has been an activity that students regularly have played in their Physical Education class. While many students, teachers and parents believe that this is an appropriate game to be played, many believe that is harmful and far too dangerous for children to participate in at school.
Task: Read the following articles that discuss the game of Dodgeball. Then, using the information from this text to support your answer, write an argumentative essay responding to the prompt below.
Prompt: Do you feel that “Dodgeball” should be an activity that is played in Physical Education? Take into account both the physical benefits that can be derived from this game as well as the potential harmful effects it can have on students.
In your essay, be sure to
- establish a precise and credible position that responds appropriately to the prompt.
- explain your position with claim(s), reasons, and evidence from the texts.
- analyze explicit ideas/information from texts and interpret the authors’ meaning and purpose.
- refer to sources when appropriate.
- discuss and respond to counterclaim(s) or alternate claims and/or evidence.
- represent content from reading materials accurately.
- order ideas and information within and across paragraphs and use
- appropriate transitional words/phrases in a way that allows the audience to follow the argument.
- include a conclusion that supports the position.
- use language and tone appropriate to the audience and purpose.
- demonstrate a command of standard English conventions.
Kids Stand Up for Embattled Dodge Ball
M E D I N A, Ohio, June 7
While educators in several states fight to have it banned, "dodge ball" is more popular than ever at one Ohio school, where kids delight in bouncing balls off each others' heads.
About 40 students at A.I. Root Middle School have formed a club in honor of the playground game that has been forbidden in Florida, Texas and other states.
"Oh yeah, it's just a gentle kids' game," Principal Tom McKenna sarcastically told The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer as he watched some of his students take aim.
‘Litigation Waiting to Happen’
In a recent article titled "The Physical Education Hall of Shame" and published in a teaching journal, Neil Williams, a physical education professor at Eastern Connecticut University, criticized the merits of dodge ball, which also is called sniper, bombardment and war ball.
"Generally speaking, the game is a litigation waiting to happen," he wrote.
In the game, kids split into teams and throw the ball at the other side. If you're hit by the ball, you're out.
The National Association for Sport and Physical Education, which represents more than 18,000 gym teachers and physical education professors, no longer advocates dodge ball.
Paula Keyes Kun, a spokeswoman for the Virginia-based education association, said dodge ball does not belong in gym classes any more than comic books belong in English classes.
She said the game encourages the strong to pick on the weak.
For Some Kids, It's a Way to Socialize
Cindy Meyer, a physical educator at Onaway Elementary School in Shaker Heights, described the activity as "totally inappropriate — the kind of game we need to get out of the schools."
"It devalues a person. You don't throw things at people," she told the paper.
Meyer, a gym teacher for 28 years, said some schools have tried to use softer balls and allow players who are hit to stay in the game.
"It appears to be fun," she said. "But there are too many other good things to do."
For seventh-grader Erik Steidl, there couldn't be anything better.
"Get out! It's just a game you don't have to be very good at to play and have fun," he said. "It's so sweet."
Dodge ball is not played in gym class at Root, and school officials monitor games. Students help by organizing and officiating themselves.
"It is more of a way to socialize for many of these kids, all of whom find their own way here to participate and many of whom have other after-school obligations," McKenna said.
Should Dodgeball be Allowed in Schools
By: Elexis Marie
This all goes back to American parents over protecting their kids. Why shouldn't it be allowed? Because someone could get hurt? By that logic, we should also get rid of chemistry (wouldn't want someone to have an asthma attack from the chemicals), cafeterias (one kid could trip another for their own sick pleasure) and stairs (wouldn't want someone falling down).
It's a fact of life that kids get hurt. As far a dangerous sports go, dodge ball is pretty far down on the list. It's great exercise, increases reaction time and teaches kids to toughen up a bit.
Yes, other kids can be sadists and intentionally harm others. The solution isn't to penalize all kids from playing a game that they enjoy (and yes, most kids do enjoy dodge ball). It's to ban the sadists from playing. I remember playing in High School, and if someone did that, in any game, one gym teacher would make them run laps for the rest of the period. If they did it again, they gave them an even stricter penalty (lifting weights, or doing push ups). Again, they got detentions.
Other sports kids play end up with much more consequences more often. Rarely do you hear about serious spinal injuries from dodge ball, but nearly every football coach has a tale to tell about a player sent to the hospital for being tackled too hard.
We shouldn't insulate our kids from every possible problem they could face. It would be disingenuous, and only detrimental to them in the long run. What will happen when they grow up? They'll transition from a world where everyone coddles them, to a world where no one cares about their feelings. The first time they tell their boss 'But it's too hard' they'll get a startling wake up call that life isn't nice and fun and fair.
School Dodgeball Ban: New Hampshire District Stops 'Human Target' Sports, Citing Bullying
The Huffington Post | By Sara Gates
Students attending Windham schools in New Hampshire, won't be dodging balls during gym class anymore. The school district voted to ban dodgeball and other "human target" sports in a recent 4-1 decision, according to multiple sources.
Windham Patch reports that school officials launched an inquiry into the physically aggressive activities after a parent complained. Ultimately, administrators cited bullying concerns for the reason to prohibit students from playing dodgeball and similar games during school hours.
"We spend a lot of time making sure our kids are violence free," Windham Superintendent Henry LaBranche told the Eagle-Tribune. "Here we have games where we use children as targets. That seems to be counter to what we are trying to accomplish with our anti-bullying campaign."
The school district's decision to ban dodgeball actually falls in line with the National Association for Sport and Physical Education's recommendation. Following the release of "DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story," the nonprofit association, which sets standards for school sports, announced that it does not approve of dodgeball as an appropriate activity for K-12 students.
The association pointed out that not all students are able to participate equally, since some of the players who require more physical activity are typically eliminated first. Targeting of "weaker" students was also cited as a concern.
While the Windham school board has referenced similar reasons to defend its decision, not everyone is on board with the newly enacted ban.
"I think it’s ridiculous,” local parent Lesa Meuller, who has two boys ages 9 and 12, told Windham Patch. "I’ve never heard of anyone getting hurt playing dodgeball."
Whether dodgeball is an appropriate sport for school children has been a topic of discussion among school administrators for more than a decade. As a 2001 New York Times story notes, schools across the nation have moved to restrict or limit the aggressive activity, and, in some cases, officially ban the sport.
Position on Dodgeball in Physical Education
by The National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE)
With the recent release of both a movie and television show about dodgeball, debate about the
game’s merits and improprieties have escalated in the media and on the NASPE listserv. Thus,
the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) would like to reiterate its
position about including dodgeball in school physical education programs.
NASPE believes that dodgeball is not an appropriate activity for K-12 school physical education
programs. The purpose of physical education is to provide students with:
• The knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to be physically active for a lifetime
• A daily dose of physical activity for health benefits
• Positive experiences so that kids want to be physically active outside of physical
education class and throughout their lifetime
The goals of physical education can be obtained through a wide variety of appropriate physical
activities.
Getting and keeping children and adolescents active is one of the biggest challenges facing
parents and youth leaders.
• 61.5% of children aged 9-13 years do not participate in any organized physical activity
during their non-school hours and 22.6% do not engage in any free-time physical activity.
• One-third of high school students are not adequately active and over 10% do not
participate in any physical activity at all.
• 16% of U.S. youth aged 6-19 are overweight; triple the proportion of 25 years ago.
According to NASPE’s Appropriate Practices for Elementary School Physical Education
(2000), “in a quality physical education class teachers involve ALL children in activities that
allow them to participate actively, both physically and mentally. Activities such as relay races,
dodgeball, and elimination tag provide limited opportunities for everyone in the class, especially
the slower, less agile students who need the activity the most.”
The students who are eliminated first in dodgeball are typically the ones who most need to be
active and practice their skills. Many times these students are also the ones with the least amount
of confidence in their physical abilities. Being targeted because they are the “weaker” players,
and being hit by a hard-thrown ball, does not help kids to develop confidence.
The arguments most often heard in favor of dodgeball are that it allows for the practice of
important physical skills – and kids like it.
• Dodgeball does provide a means of practicing some important physical skills – running,
dodging, throwing, and catching. However, there are many activities that allow practice
of these skills without using human targets or eliminating students from play.
• Some kids may like it – the most skilled, the most confident. But many do not!
Certainly not the student who gets hit hard in the stomach, head, or groin. And it is not
appropriate to teach our children that you win by hurting others.
In a recent article about the new GSN (games network) TV show called “Extreme Dodgeball,”
there is talk of “developing and executing extreme strategies to annihilate opponents” and the
use of terms such as “throw-to-kill ratios,” and “headshots.” NASPE asks, “Is this the type of
game that you want children to be exposed to?”