{"id":1447,"date":"2009-03-05T22:40:55","date_gmt":"2009-03-05T22:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/owenstrachan.com\/?p=1447"},"modified":"2009-03-05T22:40:55","modified_gmt":"2009-03-05T22:40:55","slug":"skateboarding-class-at-high-school-and-other-signs-of-the-demise-of-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/03\/skateboarding-class-at-high-school-and-other-signs-of-the-demise-of-the-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Skateboarding Class at High School, and Other Signs of the Demise of the West"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"skating\"As Carl Trueman recently said, I am about to switch my blogging flamethrower to \u2018Total Righteous Destruction\u2019.\u00a0 Before I do so, allow me to list a few quotations from a VOA news piece by Sahar Sashar entitled, \u201cSkateboarding Class at New York School Empowers Teen Girls.\u201d<\/a> My take on this educational disaster has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with education.<\/p>\n

The \u201cempowering bond of skater culture\u201d: <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c[A]t East Side Community High School in New York City, young women, too, are learning to experience the thrills and spills of skateboarding and the empowering bond of skater culture throught a one-of-a-kind class. <\/span>\u201cWell, since, we got skateboarding in school, before I didn\u2019t really know how to skateboard or anything, so when I came here I learned a lot,\u201d says student Jade Fellows.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This next bit belongs in the \u201cI swear I am not making this up\u201d category:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>The class teaches the fundamentals of skateboarding and also inspires the girls to continue improving their skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time I stepped on the skateboard, I fell, and I thought, \u2018I\u2019m going to get back up and try again,'\u201d says student Michelle Whitaker. \u201cAnd now I\u2019m skateboarding fast. And Billy was really proud of me \u2019cause I did that. \u2018Cause I learned how to skateboard\u2026 in the matter of two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assistant Principal Tom Mullen is encouraged:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAssistant Principal Tom Mullen has also noticed a change in the girls and boys of the class \u2013 and not just skateboarding skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen the kids feeling better about themselves. A lot more confidence. I think it\u2019s because they tried something new. They practiced at it. They feel themselves getting better at it. And that builds confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, everyone is \u201clearning\u201d: <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a proactive role model has helped the students to value discipline and taught them that through skateboarding, they can break many boundaries in their lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have opportunity to do things, so that\u2019s why I\u2019m taking it,\u201d says Michelle Whitaker. \u201cSo I can try something new, and I\u2019m a girl, and a lot of girls don\u2019t do this. I really learned a lot by skateboarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

**********************<\/span><\/p>\n

And that dull thud you just heard was the corpse of the Western intellectual spirit crashing to the ground.\u00a0 Or, to put it differently, if a civilization falls over in the forest, does anyone hear it?<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s pause, though, to note a few positives here.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad that students have a good role model in the instructor who cares for them; I\u2019m glad for an after-school program that seeks to help children; I am happy for kids to have fun and try new things; I\u2019m glad that children are learning to challenge themselves and try new experiences.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Proceeding into TRD mode, I just want to note that this is not a mere after-school program, which I personally would not condemn in the least but would instead praise.\u00a0 No, this is a \u201cclass.\u201d\u00a0 Yes, a class.\u00a0 Students are taking \u201cSkateboarding\u201d for credit.\u00a0 Is anyone aware of the irony here?\u00a0 It runs so deep it might interfere with the earth\u2019s core: a \u201cclass\u201d in \u201cSkateboarding?\u201d\u00a0 If you just developed a twitch, do not be alarmed.\u00a0 You are not alone.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m all for hard sciences classes and the like\u2013home ec, shop, etc\u2013as they can be very helpful.\u00a0 This class is in another class, though.\u00a0 No, it\u2019s in another universe.\u00a0 The Western mind is crumbling, and it\u2019s because we\u2019re not worried about teaching students actual content anymore\u2013\u201clearning\u201d in an old-fashioned sense, for those of you scoring at ome\u2013but about \u201cself-esteem\u201d and \u201cbelieving in yourself.\u201d Note the slippery use of \u201clearning\u201d at numerous places in the article\u2013it is a word redefined with nary a second thought.\u00a0 Why exactly is a school, charged with the cultivation of the mind, helping a student to do kickflips?
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

This is why kids don\u2019t read; this is why so many can\u2019t think and write and use grammar correctly; this is why our society is getting stupider.\u00a0 We have replaced knowledge with feelings and academic instruction with morally uplifted therapy.\u00a0 Kids know nothing, but they feel great.\u00a0 Charles Sykes\u2019s excellent Dumbing Down Our Kids<\/em><\/a> makes this point with force and a dash of fury.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think that this one little school with its skateboarding class is singlehandedly destroying the Western mind (you\u2019re glad to know that, I\u2019m sure).\u00a0 But this stream of thought from which classes like this come is doing its fair share to inhibit the flourishing of our society.\u00a0 Drinking a mixture of entitlement, self-help thought, presentism, and laziness, and chasing it with a few liters of old-fashioned stupidity, we are allowing our intellectual and moral social foundation to crumble.\u00a0 We don\u2019t teach Socrates, we teach skateboarding, and then we wonder why all teens want to do is watch tv, surf the Internet, text ad naseum, and play XBox.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t see where major pushback will come from.\u00a0 I do have hope that as Christians, we will educate our children with excellence, and push them to live challenging, intellectually stimulating lives.\u00a0 This will involve turning off the tv, spending significant time with them, majorly curbing Internet usage, pushing them out the door to play, not buying an endless stream of gadgets, driving them to read and think and write on a regular basis, and not being selfish with our own time.\u00a0 The more parents that do this, the better.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m not holding out a lot of hope here.\u00a0 The Western mind has fallen\u2013I heard it tripped over a skateboard.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Carl Trueman recently said, I am about to switch my blogging flamethrower to \u2018Total Righteous Destruction\u2019.\u00a0 Before I do so, allow me to list a few quotations from a VOA news piece by Sahar Sashar entitled, \u201cSkateboarding Class at New York School Empowers Teen Girls.\u201d My take on this educational disaster has nothing to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13047,772,13171,2167,2550,2605,2653],"class_list":["post-1447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-education","tag-charles-sykes","tag-intellectual-life","tag-new-york-city","tag-sahar-sashar","tag-self-esteem","tag-skateboarding-class"],"yoast_head":"\nSkateboarding Class at High School, and Other Signs of the Demise of the West<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" 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