Two groups have asked the National Collegiate Athletic Association to recognize a version of cheerleading known as competitive cheer as an ?emerging sport? for women. In time, this can lead to its being given full status as a championship sport. Do you consider cheerleading a sport? Why or why not?
In ?Born on Sideline, Cheering Clamors to Be Sport,? Katie Thomas writes:
While cheerleading evokes images of pompoms and pleated skirts, it has relied on increasingly athletic feats of grace and strength in recent years. As participants have perfected their basket tosses and pyramids, and mounted ambitious floor routines, a complicated and emotional question has arisen: has cheerleading become a true sport?
For many women, especially those who worked at the forefront of the push for equality in college sports, the answer for a long time was no. They feared that calling it a sport sent the wrong message to women ? endorsing an embarrassing holdover from a time when girls in tight-fitting outfits were expected to do little more than yell support for boys. Those women were also skeptical of high schools and universities that counted female cheerleaders as athletes as a way to evade their obligation to provide opportunities for women in more traditional sports, like softball and soccer.
But other women bristled at what felt like an insult. Why should cheerleading not be considered a sport when it required a complex set of technical skills, physical fitness and real guts?
Students: Tell us how you feel about cheerleading ? especially whether it should officially be designated a sport. What skills does cheerleading require? How is it like, and unlike, being part of a soccer or gymnastics team, in terms of commitment to practice, physical activity levels and teamwork? Do you think that if cheerleading officially becomes a college sport for women, more people would participate in it in junior high and high school? Why or why not?
Students 13 and older are invited to comment below. Please use only your first name. For privacy policy reasons, we will not publish student comments that include a last name.
Teachers: Here are ideas for using The New York Times for teaching and learning about women.
Source: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/is-cheerleading-a-sport/
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