Don't think that sports stars matter to kids anymore? I just attended my daughter's fourth grade class, to watch her do a report on a biography she'd read. The idea was that you were supposed to come to class dressed like this figure from history or a person for whom a biography had been written. Prior to that, you were supposed to have read the biograpphy on the character, taken notes and present yourself as though you are that person.
Half the class (about 14 kids) did their presentations today. My daughter Katie did hers second.
The first girl did Hellen Keller. She did a great job. Katie did Cleopatra VII, the last Pharoah of Egypt. The only other kid who didn't do a sports figure was a boy who did Harry Houdini.
Everyone else did a sports figure (though a couple girls did ballerinas, which imo, is sports and art mixed. :) ). Most of the sports figures were still alive. One was a guy who'd been thrown in jail for brawling in a barfight. It was amusing to watch one boy in the back of the class, who would get excited about the mention of any sportsfigure. I had forgotten about those types of kids who memorized every sports guy, their stats, and all that... but there he was... busy correcting the record, asking ridiculously trivial questions to the students pretending to be the men and women he idolized.
Of course my daughter choosing Cleopatra surprised me. We dressed her up in gold and even got a basket with a cobra... which she used to kill herself after she failed to stop Octavius at the Battle of Actium. Cleopatra had a child from Julius Ceasar... She had three children with Mark Anthony. Both men were married at the time to Roman women. She was also married to two of her brothers... who died under mysterious circumstances... so um... yeah... that was fun to explain to Katie... :)
--Ray
-- Edited by rayb at 15:40, 2007-03-05
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
I hate to say it Ray but this goes all back to the parents. Now there are some sports figures that I think would be fine for such a project like Jim Thorpe, Roberto Clemente, or Jackie Robinson who were not just sports figures but actually breaking barriers to race. A few others maybe like Ruth or Cobb who changed the game with their play. These kids are obsessed with sports figures because their parents are like that. I love sports myself but it isn't an obsession like some people where they know all the stats and players names. I have seen parents who are just obsessed and their kids become that way too. It is kind of sad when the heros of the day seem to be all sports stars with bawdy behavior.
I think you may be part right. I think it also has to do with which sports the kids get to play. Two of the girls did the same soccer heroine, some gal named Hamm. Apparently she's really good in women's soccer... I dunno... I know nothing about these things. :)
At first, when my daughter said she wanted to do Cleopatra, I was afraid that all the girls were planning to do her, because she seems such an icon in history... (She chose her all on her own, with absolutely no influence from me, which I know is hard to believe, but you just gotta... cuz she surprised me with the choice as I'd been bugging her to choose someone... but quite honestly I had no idea who she would do... Of course once she chose Cleopatra I was ALL OVER it... reading, reciting stuff, at the library, finding books for her, reading books to her... apologizing for Cleopatra's bad behavior...) at least in terms of being a woman of power in history, she's pretty central. Come to find out, Katie's the only person in her class that actually DID a character FROM history... all the rest did relatively contemporary figures...
Weird, eh?
--Ray
PS> Next year, if they get to do something similar, I'm hoping she chooses Lucrezia Borgia... hehehehe... Okay maybe not...
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
I think kids can be involved in sports and not obsessed with the pro stars. I think there has to be some encouragement/enabling at home. There was a family in our ward that let their primary aged children watch rated r movies. Guess what they were obsessed with. I think parents can steer their children's interests and education a lot. Many are content with being their child's friend instead of a parent. If my little girl wanted to do a report on Mia Hamm (She so hot!) then I would probably encourage her to do someone else. In the end, if she insisted I would let her do the report on Mia though. I think the teacher could also set out some more appropriate guidlines to prevent sport worship being the theme for future reports on historical figures.
yeah, Mia Hamm... that's her name... and apparently there were three or four girls in the class doing her biography.
I was impressed by the amount of study some of these kids did into the lives of these people too... Which is bothersome when one of the sports idols (and I'm quoting from a boy's presentation) "served four months in prison for fighting in a bar."
Then again... like I said, Cleopatra wasn't exactly Molly Mormon.
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
She may not have been Molly Mormon, but historically speaking her acts had great impact, for good or for evil. Even a long time later she is still remembered for her place in history. How many of those sports stars will be remembered even 100 years from now?
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
That's a good point, Arb. Further, I think Katie learned more because she'd never really even heard of the Romans, or Julius Caesar, nor had she considered all the various conditions in which the warring countries found themselves. The story is compelling both from the political aftermath, and on a personal level...
--Ray
__________________
I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
) then I would probably encourage her to do someone else. In the end, if she insisted I would let her do the report on Mia though. I think the teacher could also set out some more appropriate guidlines to prevent sport worship being the theme for future reports on historical figures.
