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From: era@hao.UUCP (Edward R. Arnold)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: Large muscle motor skills?
Message-ID: <1436@hao.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 2-Apr-85 18:19:03 EST
Article-I.D.: hao.1436
Posted: Tue Apr  2 18:19:03 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 5-Apr-85 02:47:16 EST
References: <7337@watrose.UUCP> <1014@gloria.UUCP> <olivee.254> <273@unc.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: High Altitude Obs./NCAR, Boulder CO
Lines: 45

> You mean this mother actually WANTS her children to become NERDS?
> Doesn't she realize the SOCIAL PROBLEMS she is causing for them?
> 
> Unless these boys are raised in an community where
> intellectual skills are valued above athletic skills (uncommon),
> this mother is risking some severe social adjustment problems
> in her children.
> 
> When they get to elementary school, how does she think
> the other boys will treat her sons, if they cannot
> play ball well or defend themselves in a streetfight?
> What will happen to their self-esteem?
> 
> How will their leadership and social skills and develop,
> if they are not respected by their peers?
> 
> Net readers beware.  Don't let this happen to your children.
> 
> 	Frank Silbermann

AMEN!  And --- social skills may be the least of their
problems.  Read the Newsweek article of 1 Apr 85, the one
about the abysmal fitness level of American kids.  Can you
believe: a generation of kids with arteriosclerotic deposits in
their arteries by age 10, who are so lethargic that lack of
physical activity is stunting their intellectual growth??

I suspect that the problem I have with my son isn't unusual:
I'm five times his age, and can run rings around him.  I just
can't get him up off his butt; I'm beginning to think I'm going
to have to buy him a leash and collar, and drag him behind me.
I've tried to get him involved in "fun" sports, like soccer,
but he still moves around like he's got 50 lbs. of lead in his
pants.

Do any readers out there have creative suggestions as to how to
motivate these kids?  They don't seem to understand or care that
even a little exercise can make them feel better and help them
avoid a triple bypass in 30 years.
-- 
Ed Arnold
NCAR/SCD (Nat'l Ctr for Atmospheric Research/Scientific Computing Div.)
USPS: POB 3000, Boulder, CO  80307-3000
BELL: 303-497-1253
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