Does Sports Day have to be so... P.C?? Grrrrrrr........

There was great anticipation among the ranks of my girlfriends recently. We held our collective breaths as our children's school met to decide whether Sports Day should be revamped.In our minds we dreamt of a Sports Day where children actually played sports and were not restricted to politically correct bean bag throwing. Maybe they would be allowed to run and jump, compete in relay teams....

Were we fools to even consider a change? It would seem so... Back came the decision from school that the format would remain the same - a round robin of events including running ( not too quickly mind... ) to a hoop and throwing a ball up, then returning to wherever you started.

The concern was that children not gifted at sports would be 'humiliated'... Humiliated? I was rubbish at sports at school, but I loved sports day.Its how you do it surely that counts? How do they know so many children will be humiliated? You might not be great at sprinting, but you might be genius at javelin!! What is wrong with giving kids who are good at sport a chance to shine? Surely in life you have to learn how to be both a good winner and a good loser - to meet both defeat and victory head on? And children are not daft - they know who is good at maths and English just the same as they know who is good at football or running. Why not celebrate both ?

I don't know... We can't all be good at everything. I am not saying that you should take a couple of slow, overweight children and line them up against the school's Ussain Bolt in a 100 metre dash - but surely to goodness there are ways to instill competitiveness in a good way? Surely wanting to win is a good thing? Wanting to be successful is a good thing? Do we all have to sit back and cater for the lowest common denominator? Do we have to not try at anything because we might fail?

Drives... me.... nuts!!!