Oh no, it's Being Hit On The Head lessons in here.

[catsidhe]

A week ago today, Miss A was away from school. She, and the other girl in the school Chess Club were representing the school in a Girls Chess Tournament being held at Lauriston.

Now, I want to make it clear that it didn't matter how well the girls played, they had next to no chance whatsoever of winning. There were only two of them, and the scoring was done by teams: the best scoring four had their scores totalled to determine the winning team, and some teams had seven players to pick from. Even if Miss A and her teammate won every match, they weren't going to win the tournament.

As it was, of seven games, Miss A won one, drew three, and lost three. Which is a creditable result (and probably influenced by her tendency to play very defensively).

I took Miss S in to school on that day, and hung around for the Monday Assembly. There was no mention of the Chess Tournament, or the two girls representing their school -- both of them for the first time.

Later in the week, when the newsletter came around, I searched for even a mention of the tournament. In vain. There were, on the other hand, many columns devoted to football and netball and athletics and collecting tshotshkes from a supermarket to buy more soccerballs and cricket bats.

Mim made a point of telling Miss A's teacher and principal about the tournament, and asking for the two girls to be at least recognised for their efforts.

And at this morning's assembly... oh go on, guess.

The Grade sixes who participated in the Tournament of Minds were called out and recognised. Which is something, at least.


But fuck it pisses me off. Once again, those who use their brains are ignored and rejected in favour of boofheads chucking balls around. And more the point, girls who use their brains are ignored and rejected in favour of chucking a ball around in short skirts.

They might say they support intellectual pursuits, but this is given the lie by their actions: all praise, all attention to the jocks. The 3rd division under-10s get a mention for coming 9th place, but you smart kids shouldn't bother looking for recognition until you've got to Nobel levels. Encouragement along the way? Why would that be relevant? It's not like anyone cares.

And even if we do manage to beat into these people's minds that maybe they'd get more participation in the Chess Club (and more female participation -- right now there are exactly three female members, and two of those are Miss A and Miss S), why do we have to fight to get the merest nod of barest grudging acknowledgement, when the Netball team(s) and Football team(s) and the rest are lavished with praise and attention and money and support merely for existing?

To look at it another way, when you compare the love lavished upon the ‘jocks’ and the ‘geeks’, I don't think you could actively drive children away from intellectual pursuits (and thereby freeze out those who aren't physically inclined) any better, short of outright punishment. AND EVEN THAT WOULD CONSTITUTE MORE ATTENTION THAN THEY'RE GETTING NOW!


Why is it that the geeks get to build the modern world, and the jocks get to treat running it for their own benefit as their goddamned birthright?

Comments

[sacredchao]

To answer that last, the movers and shakers of this world are all freaks. They have to be because as a species we're not actually very clever. We're also heavily conditioned to mistrust difference and there are all sorts of hominid survival reasons for that but it does mean that the average person is wired to distrust anyone too bloody clever by half. This is spectacularly crap but it's embedded far more deeply than simply being cultural, methinks. Doesn't make it easier to stomach, of course.

[mimdancer]

Actually, I only spoke to her teacher, who said it would be mentioned to the Principal.

If they had trashed the place in their school uniforms, then they may have gotten attention but not the kind they were looking for...

[thelancrewitch]

Really sad, but unfortunately, not all that surprising. Which makes it even sadder, of course.

Congratulations to Miss A! I'm sorry the school couldn't be bothered acknowledging her achievements.

[tau-iota-mu-c.livejournal.com]

Only subversives use their brain. I have let the government know that you have displaying such behaviour for you and your daughters to be re-educated.

(some have said that you have to praise jocks then, because it's the only praise they'll ever get in their life. But if we were praised then, it too would be the only praise we ever get in our life. I prefer to think of it is as just setting us up for the appropriate level of disappointment for later in life).

[sjl]

Yeah. This.

I still remember, with some degree of fondness, the time when the Whole School had to Go Out and Support the First Eighteen. Naturally, my friends and I had absolutely no interest in doing so, but the library was locked, as were the computer labs, so we didn't have much choice.

We spent the entire game behind the pavilion, swapping computer games, tips for getting through said games, and general geekery. The prefects tried to move us on a few times, but each time, we just waited for them to disappear elsewhere and then returned to what we were doing.

The annoying thing, from my perspective now (twenty-odd years on), is that their attitude actively turned me *off* fitness, exercise, and sport - because I was no good at it, and hence was put down every time I tried. They *said* it was about participation, but their actions belied that assertion.

Small wonder we have problems with obesity. Excuse me, I hear a chocolate cake calling my name ...