Schools in support of fighting?
Rushda:
January 31st, 2007
How can anyone be so silly as to introduce boxing lessons in school? Many schools are now participating in teaching boxing as a means to “help pupils develop their mental and physical skills”, and even more unimpressively, in the hope of finding an Olympic boxing medallist. But I think that regardless of any possible benefits the project may have, and even here I’m sceptical, it is totally doomed from the start on more serious grounds.
Everyone knows boxing injuries are frequent and often result in severe brain damage, and in my opinion this makes it bad enough that adults participate in such an activity. It’s absolutely absurd therefore to introduce boxing at a young age. Not only are you putting children at great risk of physical harm, which will probably affect them more because their brains are still developing, it is also like you are saying to children that it is good to fight. To my mind nothing good that comes out of boxing can be worth the price of encouraging aggressive behaviour amongst children, and I really hope schools across the nation rethink such a strategy.