We spent the weeks before Winter Break reading a number of news articles dealing with competition and sportsmanship. During each reading we worked to make connections to the text from our own experiences and understandings of sports. At the heart of each of these stories was the question: "Is it okay to win by a whole, whole lot?"
We found out that in some states high school coaches are punished for winning by "too much." Some stories told of undermanned teams losing a basketball game 100 - 0 where the winning team was throwing up three pointers to the very end while their fans cheared them on to triple digits. Other articles told of coaches who had put in their back-up players but still found that the margin of victory climbed and climbed. One article in particular told of a coach who is viewed as a jerk in many circles because his football teams don't just win - they embarrass other squads. However, he argued that he had asked repeatedly to keep the playclock running throughout the game so that it would end sooner and the score might be more reasonable but that his requests were always refused. There were definitely many issues to consider in each of these articles.
Today the kids held a debate about this. The debate question was: Should high school coaches be punished for winning by too much? Our last debate, on zoos, was very formal in that the kids were paired up and argued to gain team points. This debate was much more informal. The kids sat around a table and had a discussion much like what you'd find around a dinnertable. Or, at least, a dinnertable with heated discussion. They started off shy and quiet but eventually became passionate to win.
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