Tag, dodgeball and self-esteem

“i love that movie! i need to see it again. :-)”

“Might be less stressful.”

“Not a bad idea nowslimmer, or at least a nerf!”

“LOL at Violin.

I hated "crab ball". We played it in the gym during rainy days. It was like hockey except you walked on your hands and feet, but with your butt side down. If the ball came near you, you got kicked to death.

High school gym class was dangerous because of the bullies and gangs. Lots of fights.”

“The kids like to stuff their arm into a rolled Ridgerest and face each other on a log like Robin and Little John on the bridge.

They pummel the crap outta each other until someone falls.”

“School is no place for fun and games. Students should at all times be on their best behavior and knuckle down and study hard.”

“I can't believe I said that with a straight face.”

“"You will attend schoool and you will enjoy it!!!!"”

“we played 'wallball' much better, it was the same as Santatrex said except when the person fumbled the ball they had to run to the wall and during that time someone else tried to throw the ball at the wall before they could run and touch it. If they got the ball there first the person who fumbled it stood still facing the wall with his arms up and the someone stands about 10 feet away and whips the ball as hard as they can at them. Your only hope, pray their aim sucks.”

“I got this from a friend:Subject: How did we survive?


Looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have. As children we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat. Our baby cribs were painted with bright colored lead based paint. We often chewed on the crib, ingesting the paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. We played dodge ball and sometimes the ball would really hurt. We played with toy guns, cowboys and Indians, army, cops and robbers, and used our fingers to simulate guns when the toy ones or the BB gun was not available. We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda, but we were never over weight; we were always outside playing. Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't, had to learn to deal with disappointment. Some students weren't as smart as others or didn't work hard so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade. That generation produced some of the greatest risk-takers and problem solvers. We had the freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), the term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA
system. We all took gym, not PE... and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light
reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now. Flunking gym was not an option... even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.
Every year, someone taught the whole school a lesson by running in the halls with leather soles on linoleum tile and hitting the wet spot. How much better off would we be today if we only knew we could have sued the school system. Speaking of school, we all said prayers and the pledge (amazing we aren't all brain dead from that), and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention for about the next two weeks. We must have had horribly damaged psyches. Schools didn't offer 14 year olds an abortion or condoms (we wouldn't have known what either was anyway) but they did give us a couple of baby aspirin and cough syrup if we started getting the sniffles. What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything. I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself. I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, PlayStation, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital cable stations. I must be repressing that memory as I try to rationalize through the denial of the dangers could have befallen us as we trekked off each day about a mile down the road to some guy's vacant 20, built forts out of branches and pieces of plywood, made trails, and fought over who got to be the Lone Ranger. What was that property owner thinking, letting us play on that lot. He should have been locked up for not putting up a fence around the property, complete with a self-closing gate and an infrared intruder alarm. Oh yeah... and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed! We played king of the hill on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites and when we got hurt, mom pulled out the 48 cent bottle of mercurochrome and then we got butt-whooped. Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics and then mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat. We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either because if we did, we got butt-whooped (physical abuse) there too... and then we got butt-whooped again when we got home. Mom invited the door to door salesman inside for coffee, kids choked down the dust from the gravel driveway while playing with Tonka trucks (remember why Tonka trucks were made tough... it wasn't so that they could take the rough berber in the family room), and Dad drove a car with leaded gas. Our music had to be left inside when we went out to play and I am sure that I nearly exhausted my imagination a couple of times when we went on two week vacations. I should probably sue the folks now for the danger they put us in when we all slept in campgrounds in the family tent. Summers were spent behind the push lawnmower and I didn't even know that mowers came with motors until I was 13 and we got one without an automatic blade-stop or an auto-drive. How sick were my parents? Of course my parents weren't the only psychos. I recall Harry Hinson
from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop just before he fell off. Little did his mom know that she could have owned our house. Instead she pick him up and swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck. To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known that we needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes? We were obviously so duped
by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac!
How did we survive?”

“that's what I'M sayin!”

“Ah, the Nostalgia Trap!!!

Good morning Mrs. Cleavage!”

“High school was rough, eh?”

“Last year I had a comic strip on my bulletin board in class (along with the ransom note for my inflatable sheep) from the strip about working in an office - you know, with the rat, etc. (Help me here.)

Anyway, the boss tells his lackey to tell an employee to tell the kids they're not allowed to skate board. The employee asks if it's part of a plan to destroy all fun on the planet.

The lackey goes back to the boss and says, 'They know about the plan.'

'You fool,' replies the boss, 'I told you to tell him it's because of our insurance.'

Does this remind you of school?

There's an article (which I haven't read) on my girl Friend's desk in the Special Ed. office that talks about schools who have dis-allowed bicycles. Now, and you can quote me on this, these rules are made by the same controller/@ssholes who #&%!$ about kids being unfit.

I do think that some, or even several kids might be intimidated by some sporting activities, but any professional would be aware of this. Of course there is the odd phys. ed. teacher - or any teacher - who is a bully, but it's rare and can be sorted out on a case by case basis.

Our school doesn't have any problems compared to the stuff you read, but we do have an absentee problem. Like all discipline problems, it can and should be fixed in the first week of school. Being in the country, almost all of our kids take the school bus. Many walk back to school just to get the bus at the end of the day.

It wouldn't take a lot of balls to round up these kids, put them in a room and start calling home until the parents came and picked them up. The problem would be solved in a week, but they'd have to get off their arses, stay with the kids (I've offered to do this) and take the flack from the parents that we always take when we do our job (Whoa, back off - not ALL parents.)

It's easier not to see it even if it's in front of the administration's windows, and #&%!$ at the teacher who doesn't send in an absence report when no-one is absent.

I guess I'm just in a bad mood to-day. The kids are great, though.”

“Dilbert”

“Dealing with parents would put anybody in a bad mood Gremlin.”

“Now Pleasantville coaches may be ones crying

Schools superintendent to suggest disciplinary action for coaches who gave boy 'crybaby award'

By MADELAINE VITALE Staff Writer Press of Atlantic City

PLEASANTVILLE - Schools Superintendent Edwin Coyle said Monday that he will recommend disciplinary action at tonight's school board meeting for middle school basketball coaches who humiliated a student by giving him the team "crybaby award."

Coyle said the coaches thought they would have fun at someone else's expense while at a recent awards banquet and it backfired.

"I was very upset and dismayed that our coaches would take an opportunity to belittle or lessen the self-esteem of our athletes," Coyle said.

The student, Terrence Philo Jr., knew he would be getting an award at the banquet. His coach called to make sure he was attending to receive his "special award."

During the banquet all of his teammates received certificates and trophies. But when Philo got up to get his award, he heard laughter. When he neared his coach, a man he looked up to, he was stunned, his father, Terrence, said Monday.

The boy's trophy had a silver figure of a baby atop a pedestal engraved with his name, which was spelled incorrectly.

The 13-year-old would not let his father, his teammates and especially not his coach, see how hurt he was.

"He went to throw it in the trash and I said no," his father said. "He said, 'Come on. I feel like I'm doing this all for nothing.'"

The boy felt so embarrassed that he could not go to school on the Monday following the April 24 ceremony, his father said.

Philo said his son has always been involved in sports. Terrence Jr. is the shortest student in the eighth grade, but he never backed down from a challenge. Fellow basketball players tower over him, but he is not intimidated. He just loves the game, his father said. In fact, he loves all sports. He plays football and is on the track team.

But since receiving the award, Terrence Jr, who is an honor roll student, has lost some of his self-esteem.

"He doesn't even want to play outside," Philo said. "The same day that he got the award, he went around the corner and someone said, 'I heard about the crybaby award.' A lot of people are talking. The kids are in shock."

more...”

“that is soooo mean!!”

“Some people just need a good horse-whipping.”

“As opposed to a bad horse-whipping?”

“That all depends on your point of view...”

“Wow, what the heck were they thinking.

Poking fun and teasing are ok...to a point and in certain time and places. This is well past that point and neither the time nor the place.”

“Reminds me of some coaches I had in sports. Its definitely the negative side of what can be a positive thing. I contrast this with my son's senior year high school football banquet in which the coaches went out of their way to say nice things about the contributions all the seniors made, even one's like my son who did not play very much. It was a class thing for them to do, in contrast to these morons......”

“serves the kid right.

i hate short people.”

“j/k (i'm 5'3")”

“Wow, that makes me realize how fortunate I was to have a great track & cross country coach in high school. I was easily the slowest kid in the county, but Coach was always 100% supportive of me (and anyone else who gave 100% effort, regardless of ability).

Now, as a Little League coach for 8-10 year olds, I always reward effort/attitude/sportsmanship. I usually try to tell a few jokes, too, to keep things from getting too serious....”

“What asses.
Molder's of Men.
Can you say 'fired'.”

“This is a really really bad school
Look at the Math scores.”

“Interesting, Stove. Also, note that they are at more than twice the statewide average for kids getting free/reduced price lunches at 68% of the kids. So it's apparently in a pretty poor area - not sure how that relates to the issue at hand, but it's interesting....”

“Pleasantville it's not.

This is the town where everyone unable to afford Atlantic City as they clear slums moves to.”

“Poor schools tend to get the teachers that can't get work at the 'rich' schools.

In this case, it looks like they got the 'poor' coaches.

Start the brick throwing but you guys know this is true.”

“Not all the 'poor' schools have scores that low. I looked up the school one of my nephews goes to. It has an even higher percentage of kids getting the free lunches (ie: poor) and is in a very poor county. Theirscores aren't good but a lot higher than this school.”

“Those coaches need to go to a course....a sensitivity course. Bunch of morons.”

“Yes morons, but he did pick the kids character correctly.

Crying to the newspapers
Crying to the radio stations (101.5 this morning)

But perhaps it is the father, not the kid.

I have children in school and have seen 'gag' awards at a number of events; Swim Team, Marching Band and Boy Scouts (after Summer camp).

I do not know if this child was the only one who received this type of recognition or if a number of people got 'funny' awards.
If he was the only one then the coaches censure is correct, but if this was one of a group of funny awards then maybe the father is the problem.

Some parents push their kids too hard to succeed, sometimes the kid just does not want to be there.

I have dealt with a number of Fathers over the years who insist on their kid getting a hunting licence when the kid is too small to even hold a shotgun.

I have also dealt with psycho parents when I was a soccer coach.
Not every kid even wants to be a star center forward, but some parents.

I can easily see a father who is pushing a kid with little talent, the kid gets a gag award and the father freaks out.

Lets not crucify the coach until we have both sides of the story.”

“Thyese @$$holes shouldn't be coaching or teaching. Unfortunately there will always be far too many of them hurting our kids, education and our sport(s).”

“A collegue teaches at a parochial school in the Chicago area. The school has been on probation, and the state just upped the level of performance. Now my collegue, works his butt off to try and teach/help the students, but the home economic situation and lack of family support--in the broad sense of the term--are not there. It's not a matter of less talented teachers, is a really messed up system and a lack of social support.”

“Good grief!

There has to be some middle ground between the insensitive moron bullies like this guy and the coddlers and enablers who baby their kids.

This guy should be fired.”

“One of our formers athletic directors was notorious for getting himself and the district in trouble. As a baseball coach he made a catcher who was jittery curl up in a steel garbage can while he pelted it with fast balls. Another time at an awards banquet while talking about the early saeson said " you guys played like a bunch of girls. I almost bought you skirts". Turns out a mom who was there was the pres on the Mi N.O.W chapter, it was very expensive.

Part of building self-esteem is to learn to deal with crap like this (though this case seems excessive). To get tough you've got to be tough. I imagine that poor kid is a basket case. I just hope mom and dad aren't pandering to his feelings of hurt. If it were my child I would immediately (after making bail on my assault charges) work on reaffirm my kids strengths and treating the coach as what he is...a non-issue.

As an aside, this re-enforces all that is wrong with High School athletics.”

“Short people got...no reason...









































Short people got...no reason to live.”

“May 6, 2004

‘Crybaby’ coach may teach, but not coach

By DAN P. LEE Staff Writer, The Press of Atlantic City

PLEASANTVILLE - A Pleasantville Middle School boys basketball coach who shamed one of his players by giving him a "crybaby" trophy at the team's awards banquet will retain his teaching position but will be forbidden from ever again coaching in the school district.

Superintendent Edwin Coyle and Board of Education President Jerome Page reached a compromise that will enable the coach, James Guillen, 24, to continue working as a special-education teacher at the school, the two officials said after a meeting Wednesday afternoon.

Guillen nevertheless will face numerous sanctions, including a five-day suspension without pay and the withholding of an upcoming raise. He also will be required to apologize publicly to the boy, and to undergo sensitivity training and mentoring with a veteran teacher.

Page said he expects the full board to authorize the penalties next week.

The Board of Education voted 5-4 to fire Guillen at its meeting Tuesday night. But because the vote was not based on the recommendation of the superintendent, it was invalid and carried no weight.

Under state law, school boards can hire and fire district employees only on superintendents' recommendations. Coyle maintained that firing Guillen would be too extreme a punishment, and instead recommended to the board Tuesday night most of the same penalties that he and Page agreed to Wednesday.

Page said after his meeting with Coyle - which board member James Pressley also attended - that he and the board had considered challenging some of the wording of the state law, but ultimately decided the other sanctions would suffice.

"We feel very satisfied now that he will not be coaching anymore," Page said, referring to the penalty he and Coyle apparently reached Wednesday; on Tuesday night, Coyle recommended a one-year ban.

The boy's father, Terrence Philo, declined to comment on the development, referring all questions to his lawyer, Steven R. Cocchi, of the Linwood-based D'Amato & D'Amato law firm. Cocchi said later in the day that his office was still conducting its investigation into the matter and declined to say whether he plans to file a lawsuit.

According to Philo, Guillen called his son the day before the banquet late last month to make sure he would be there to receive a "special award." At the ceremony, the boy, Terrence Jr., stood by as all his teammates were given certificates and trophies. He received none.

Finally, Guillen called Terrence Jr. forward, presenting him with the "crybaby award," a trophy featuring a golden figurine of an infant and the boy's misspelled name. Guillen explained that Terrence Jr. was receiving the award because "he begged to get in the game, and all he did was whine."

The story has generated tremendous media attention throughout the United States and even in Canada. Television news crews descended on the school board meeting Tuesday night, and nationally syndicated radio talk show host Howard Stern weighed in with his opinion during his show Wednesday.

Coyle on Wednesday reiterated his position that while Guillen's actions were reprehensible, firing him would have been inappropriate.

"I honestly do not believe that it rose to the level of termination," he said. "(Guillen) has a lot to offer the district, he's concerned about kids, and he made a mistake as a young person. I don't think that it should be a fatal mistake. I think he learned from this."

As part of his punishment, Guillen will be required to host another awards banquet, to which all the players on his basketball team as well as the team's cheerleaders will be invited. At the ceremony, Guillen must apologize to Terrence Jr. and present him with the same certificate and trophy his teammates received.

Coyle said everyone who attended the previous banquet will be "re-invited because they were all part of that evening and some of them may have thought that this was a fun thing at this young man's expense.

"But we didn't think that at all," he said. "So an apology should be to all those who were there."

Coyle said he planned to meet with Guillen and his union representatives today to discuss the situation and the sanctions.

Guillen, who has worked as a teacher at the middle school for three years and led the boys basketball team to a league championship this year - his first year as coach - has not yet publicly discussed the matter. But Coyle said Guillen has told him he regrets giving the boy the award and did so only in an attempt to motivate him.”

“WTF? I just read a copy of the Sucide note from the Scum in Omaha....Boohoo...so tired of the "meaningless existence"

I am tired of telling kids to have "self esteem" and never letting them GET any self esteem.

LOL...want to see self esteem? I took 15 boys on a greuling hike (almost none had ever done UP HILL in the RAIN hike in the cold and winter temps). We got to the end (not long really over two days no more than seven miles but UP the first day and DOWN (with no real trail due to storm damage) the second day).
At the end was a waterfall, and you should have SEEN the smiles on their faces. They had actually Accomplished something. I tell the people looking for a way to FIND themselves, "throw on a backpack, get out and LEARN who you really are.”