Interesting POV: Cheerleading one sport worth ditching

[Horse with no Name]

Can't imagine it would go over well in Texas--but I think it should.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/columnists/sparks/stories/DN-edcol_16met.ART.State.Edition2.42d9321.html
>>>snip
Cheerleading seems to produce a social toxin that poisons the brain of anyone it touches – the girls, their parents, teachers, administrators and the public.

>>>snip
Two cheerleader moms, D.J. Pool and Pam Burns, got crosswise with each other. Ms. Pool's daughter got kicked off the squad for being in the presence of alcohol. MySpace pictures of other cheerleaders who also appeared to be in the presence of alcohol got sent to school officials.

Three other girls, including Ms. Burns' daughter, got kicked off the squad, and the cheerleader booster club erupted into warring factions of parents. None of the girls actually admitted to drinking.

>>>snip
School administrators maintain a double standard when defining what is disruptive to the learning environment. They ban students with unusual hairstyles, T-shirts with beer logos or marijuana leaves, bare midriffs and baggy pants.

Those things may be offensive to adults, but they aren't disruptive. Cheerleading is disruptive. Really, what would be lost if high schools dumped it as an extracurricular activity?

[Hardrada]

1. If they would choose cheerleaders on the basis of

ability and not appearance or popularity or being of the female gender, that might help.

[Horse with no Name]

2. You are correct.

I have watched cheerleader tryouts.
They are nothing but popularity contests in High School.
It is not equal. It is not fair.
It SHOULD be gone.

[PRETZEL]

7. fortunately my daughter's HS works things somewhat differently,

I'm not going to argue the stereotypical here cause I somewhat agree. My daughter's HS does the tryouts over the course of a week and they bring in cheerleaders who have graduated to do the judging. They also, not that that means much, don't use names. But we all know that just because someone has a number attached to their tryout sheet doesn't mean it's subjective.

But thankfully my daughter doesn't fit the mold, either. She's worked her behind off over many years and has earned her spot on the team

[gaspee]

3. But how Else

would young girls be indoctrinated? Oh wait... there's the whole rest of our society.

[Lerkfish]

4. cheerleaders are the unspoken vicarious viagra

that just occurred to me. There is a wink-wink factor to their being there at all.
They are engineered to be fantasy material for both male students and male adults who attend the games.

just sayin.

:shrug:

[rockymountaindem]

5. That whole thing about how football is the heart of the school is kind of dumb though

I went to a school that valued football highly. Well, the administration valued it, as did the team itself, the PE department and all of the football parents. The hefty PR steamroller that trio created served to drown out lots of other good things at the school. As much as everybody in the administration tried to deny it, that split the student body and many of the teachers into two factions: those who were pro-football and everybody else. Our drama people were very talented and dedicated. They worked their asses off to pull off some good performances. Did they get full auditoriums every time? No. And yet the district football stadium was packed every Friday night of the season.

Speaking for myself, I was the captain of the state-champion trivia team. I was also on the school tennis team which finished first in the end-of-season standings one year. That didn't get us any respect. Neither did the fact that we once won 700 dollars for the school by winning a trivia tournament. The fact that people paid money to see the theatre and orchestra performances didn't seem to win them a lot of love from anybody outside their immediate circle. In fact, our success actually made us the target of the football people. Let me tell you a story:

The football team got everything they could ask for. Tons of money invested in pads, tackling sleds, video cameras etc. On the tennis team, we had to have a fundraiser just to get some windscreens for the courts. We had to put them up ourselves. That was part of a big-time tennis work week in which we all had to paint our own bleachers, backboards and trash can, plus weed-whack and prune in the middle of August all because the administration and maintenance people didn't care enough to have someone come over with a paint machine and spruce things up. *That* was time which would have been better spent on practice. Basically, we did all the work to make the tennis courts a better venue for visiting teams and their parents. Nobody noticed but us. Surprisingly, we did actually get reimbursed for the cost of the paint. The girls team also had to raise funds for a ball machine and a mini-shed to store it in. The football boosters provided everything that team needed no questions asked.

Oh, and after we painted our trash barrel, it went missing. We found our nicely-painted barrel over by the football field. We promptly stole it back and painted "Go Tennis" on it so as to prevent another theft. I can tell you that the animosity between tennis and football existed between football and practically everything else that went on at the school. Of course, nobody would think about asking the football team to share the spotlight, because they make the school money. Well, IMHO there are some negative side-effects of football tunnel vision that should be addressed. Instead, everybody else just gets cast as a hater who dislikes the football team because they're not man enough to be on it or cute enough to be cheering from the sidelines. That's not good for anybody.

[Captain Hilts]

9. High school is so sexist. Ex-football coaches are the principals, football is everything...

I felt like a second class citizen.

Twenty, thirty! years later I'm still pissed.

[rockymountaindem]

12. I wouldn't call it sex-based as regards football

The team groupies were equally popular as the guys on the team.

[Javaman]

13. Going back 25 years now...

I was on the cross country team. we won the county champs, had a few all-star runners that made it to the states. Our football team was dead last, not in our division, but over all. Yet, they got new equipment and we got jack squat. that is until...

our team, the girls volley ball team (state champs two years in a row) and the boys soccer team (also state champs) staged a sit down protest in the principles office.

after that we got a hearing in front of the school board. At the end of the day, we got a new track, the volleyball team got new nets, new floor and new uniforms, the soccer team got a new improved field and new equipment. the football team had to make due with what they had.

in my school cheerleading was just an excuse for some of these girls to date football players. the real competition was for the completely useless "Coquettes" a kick line alla Radio City Music Hall. they would come out at half time and well, have a kick line.

I never understood the whole concept. Yet these women/girls would make sure you knew who they were and courted that power to no end. They were to good for football players, they dated business men, dentists, lawyers, etc. I shit you not. Most of them now do nothing but spend their hubby's money. I only know this from attending my 20th reunion.

How bizarre. what a sad life.

get rid of cheerleading and "kick lines". period.

[Arugula Latte]

17. When I think back on high school, the footballteamworship is one thing that pisses me off to no end

How many times were those hulking boys paraded in front of us, cheered, given assemblies, had signs painted for, had cheerleaders going into contortions for, etc. etc. etc. Even at the time I remember thinking: "Why am I supposed to give a crap that these guys put their stupid ball through goalposts more than the guys from that other high school?"

Meanwhile, the kids working their asses off academically were never paraded in front of the school to cheers and applause.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

18. And a good thing, too.

Cause they'd get rocks thrown at them. Yay for High School.

[LisaM]

6. Well they used to be mixed-sex and they used to lead cheers

What you're referring to are dance squads. IMO, they are NOT the same thing. If they are going to be called cheerleaders, then their function should be to lead cheers.

[Fresh_Start]

8. I've read about schools who only have cheerleaders

for male sports.

If cheerleading isn't for all the school teams, it should not be at the school at all.

[Sapere aude]

10. Maybe we should ban parents instead.

Seems like it is the parents that have the problem.

[KamaAina]

11. "Cheerleading seems to produce a social toxin that poisons the brain of anyone it touches"

That explains everything! Remember, Bush** was a male cheerleader at Andover!

"Poisons the brain of anyone it touches", indeed!

[treestar]

14. Yep, Chimpy was a cheerleader. Case closed!

Though his brain was probably poison even before that.

[Selatius]

15. Here's a novel idea.

Until the federal government stops spending its money like this:



And provides money to restore public schools in America, local school districts can cut their sports budget and use the freed revenue for new books and pencils and more teachers.

[Horse with no Name]

16. I totally agree.

IF people want their football and cheerleading, let them find local sponsors and make it an after-school activity.
Free up the daytime hours for important things like geography or history and free up the school budget for actual education instead of coaches who pose as teachers.

[RC Quake]

19. Cheerleaders in my time weren't beautiful.

Not by a long shot. They had money...or their parents' did...and they had the best clothes, hair, cars. Not thin or beautiful. The wealthiest of the wealthy were on the side lines of every sporting event instead of grazing in the local pasture where they belonged.

Just do away with it already.