Have you heard the latest news? The Sports Club has proposed that we all be required to join a sports team at school. Of course, there are benefits of this proposal, which I do not deny, but I think this is a bad idea.
Imagine you are not particularly sporty or even do not know the ABC of a sport that has its own team in our school. How are you going to survive in the physically-demanding and mentally-challenging training? Yes, such not at all sporty schoolmates do exist and the number is not negligible. Would you agree if I say it is very unfair to force them to struggle in the sports teams, which add strain to their already highly-pressured school lives? Don’t forget about the high possibility that these non-athletic students may be first-timers in the sports they are required to play, which will then result in more stress and higher risk of injury, both physically and psychologically.
Here is a question for all non-sports team members: How do you spend your non-school time? Taking classes in tutorial centres? Doing other extra-curricular activities? I do not think you will have time for all these anymore if you are required to join a sports team, because the training hours of sports team are long and sports team members often participate in competitions during non-school days. What does this prove to us? Sports teams consume our time much more than we expected. I think it is sensible to say that requiring all students to join sports teams not only parts them from their current well-organised after-school activities but also ‘steals away’ a lot of their other time, which is meant to be spent in a more worthwhile manner.
If you happen to be a Sports Club committee member, you may be thinking I am forgetting the advantages of your proposal. But I am not. Let us take a closer look. Requiring all students to join a sports team does give some of our schoolmates the opportunity to try something new and expand their horizons. Sadly but true, this is achieved with the possibility that it is against their wills while messing up their perfectly fine schedules. If the Sports Club really wants to do something meaningful, there are other ways to achieve this ‘horizon expanding’ goal such as a ‘Sports Week’ which gives everyone in the school, including the teachers, chances to experience less common sports, such as baseball and fencing.
I have not the slightest idea why the Sports Club is proposing that all students have to join a sports team. If they are having selfish causes behind like wanting to improve the sports teams’ performance in inter-school competitions, they had better give up this bad idea before it is too late. Stop disturbing our schoolmates and let us live as we like.