Quote:
Originally Posted by Didace
In many sports, college scouting starts was before 11/12.
Yes, I'm sure it does, but I expect that the kids who are going to get scouted that young aren't going to be affected by a couple of trans kids being on the team.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Didace
I'm interested in finding out more about these people that aren't super serious about sports yet just need to participate but when they are a junior in high school in need goes away.
I'm not suggesting this is some kind of weird binary situation. Kids aren't either super serious about sports, or don't care at all about competition. And inclusion isn't something that is important one day, and doesn't matter the next. And as I've said, I'm not committed to any particular age or solution. The only thing I'm committed to is the belief that we don't need to be banishing all K-12 transgender kids from playing with the team of their choosing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Didace
Serious question for you Bobo - Did you participate in school sports when you were 12? Because I get the feeling you think it's just a bunch of kids running around with no real concern about actual competition. That was no my experience.
This question makes me wonder if if your arguments are based on the current situation, because I can't see how our experiences from decades ago are particularly relevant, unless you're much younger than I would have thought. Yes, when I was 12, over 40 years ago, I participated in some school sports. Things were a lot different then, which I know because my own kids went through that age in the last 10 years, and also played some school sports. I've also been involved in the K-12 system in different roles for the last 20 years, and my wife has been a teacher for almost 30. None of this makes me anything close to an expert, but it does give me some knowledge of the current school climate. It wasn't "a bunch of kids running around with no real concern about actual competition" when I was a kid, nor was it when our kids went to school, nor is it now. But we care a lot more about inclusion now than we did 40 years ago. 40 years ago, special needs kids (diverse learners is the more contemporary term, but that might cause confusion here) didn't even go to a "regular" school, let alone participate in school sports. Homophobic slurs were still a common thing on the playground. Times have changed. Of course most 12 year old kids still care who wins. Lots of 5 year old kids care who wins, although for many the importance isn't nearly as high. But they also care at those ages that their friends are included, which is something we didn't think a whole lot about 40 years ago - if you were chosen, you got to play, and if you weren't good enough, you didn't, or you were relegated to a B team. As they get older, that changes of course, and that's something I think the schools are able to handle just fine without legislators telling them how it must be, just like we don't need them lesson planning.