I was listening to a sports programme on
the radio recently. Some former
professional players were discussing how differently young players are treated
these days, compared to previous generations.
These ex-pros were complaining that modern
youngsters rarely had a tough mentality.
They might be as skilful as former players, but tended to react badly to
pressure.
Twenty years ago, managers would shout at
the players when they were losing, and criticise them harshly when they were
performing poorly. Before they became
successful members of the first team, they were expected to show their
dedication and work-ethic by cleaning the boots of the older players.
According to these ex-pros, the modern
young players are mollycoddled. They
aren’t exposed to harsh criticism, and have teams of experts looking after
their diet, media relations, contract negotiations and so on. It is like being wrapped in cotton wool,
always warm and safe. Then when the
cotton wool eventually slips and, say, the team is on a bad losing run and is
facing heavy criticism from the fans and media, the players aren’t able to
handle the pressure.
The discussion made me think of the wild
swings in Japanese educational policy, from wrapping the kids in cotton wool
one day to Spartan education the next.
“Spartan education” is a term used in Japan
to mean severe education, with the purpose of turning out tough kids. One manifestation of this is the crazy
lengths, or rather heights, schools often go to in sports festivals. In these events, many schools have the
children form extremely tall human pyramids.
Some primary schools form pyramids of nine tiers. Some junior high-schools have the children
form pyramids of 11 tiers. That is as
high as the third floor of a building, and students at the bottom are estimated
to be supporting the weight of 4.2 children.
Clearly, this risks causing accidents.
I found an article from 2012 which said that in that year alone, there
were 6,533 accidents in schools whilst trying to form human pyramids. In the ten years leading to 2012, there were
20 serious accidents caused, leading to permanent injuries or disabilities.
The opposite of Spartan education is “Yutori
kyoiku”, or easy-going education.
Following this policy, many schools in Japan tried to take pressure off
students to the extent that they only had to learn that the mathematical
constant pi was 3, rather than 3.14 (or to greater detail). In many sports events, there are effectively
no losers. If there are eight students
in a race, then they all win a medal at the end. The person who finishes eighth is merely the
slowest winner. It is no wonder that
when these kids graduate and start working, they burst into tears when they are
criticised for doing something wrong.
No doubt the ideal is somewhere in between
the two extremes. Learning how to react
to tough conditions and pressure is important, and there is nothing wrong with
losing on occasion. But if I were asked
to climb an 11 tier pyramid, I think I might have a cold that day, or a
conveniently twisted ankle. “Sorry,
coach. Why don’t you climb up instead?”
a work-ethic – an understanding of the
value of hard work; a hardworking attitude
to be mollycoddled – Especially of a child
or youngster, to be over-protected from harsh realities or difficulties
cotton wool – a soft, white sheet of
cotton, used in a variety of applications such as cleaning the face
to turn something out – to produce
something
a manifestation - an embodiment; a physical
example of something abstract or theoretical
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