As
I watched all the high school kids getting ready for their school sports day
this year, I was thinking how nice it would be to watch a sports day at my alma
mater. You see, we don’t have sports days in the U.S.. Frankly, I think it
would be impossible; we just don’t have the same sense of team spirit. But,
there are other issues as well.
At
my school there are 2,500 students. In order to control all the highly
individualistic young adults, you would have to have many teachers organizing
practice. The school would have to make it mandatory for teachers to participate
and that would mean the school would have to pay overtime (150% of the hourly
wage), to each and every teacher. Next, the students would have to have
fundraisers to get the money for P.E. uniforms for all the athletes, because
they are exempt from P.E. classes.
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You’d have to rent a stadium for the event,
because half the students drive cars and all the parents would drive separately.
You’d have to deal with all the students who refuse to go and handle all the
requests for exemption from participation. You would need special security and
staff for the sports day venue and on and on….It’s a shame.
My hat is off to all the people
here in Matsuyama who work so hard to make the sports days special. Good luck
again next year. Ganbatte ikimashoi!
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English Academy