I’ll admit that my hopes for a peaceful future get
fired up during the Olympics. I am a fan
of the accomplishments and striving of each generation of athletes who gather
in an Olympic Village to compete. I’m also a fan of the idea that people all
over the world pause to appreciate and cheer for them. Yes, I know the games are commercialized,
controversies abound, and media coverage—in every country—often tends to promote
nationalism versus a sense of global community.
I still love the Games.
I also love the opportunities Olympics' issues offer to thoughtful teachers and students. Here are ways to continue the excitement
of the games in the classroom, with an eye to enhancing critical thinking,
media literacy, discussion of human rights, and appreciation of sportsmanship
and athleticism.
Look
at nationalism versus global unity:
Colman McCarthy is one of my heroes. Former Washington
Post journalist McCarthy details his transition to peace educator in his 2002
book I’d Rather Teach Peace. He directs the Center for
Teaching Peace, and if you don’t know of McCarthy’s work, please visit the
links below. Perhaps he points to the need
for peace education best by asserting “Unless we teach our children peace,
somebody else will teach them violence.”
In 2006, McCarthy
wrote an article entitled The Olympics
are too Politicized, describing the career and critical thinking of 1990s
Olympic speed skater Nathanial Mills. Mills
valued the games—as many of us do—as an opportunity for internationalism and
the way they bring athletes and spectators together in pursuit of and appreciation
of excellence. However, McCarthy wrote, Mills
began to look at the Olympics with a more critical eye:
It was only after he
retired from competition that Mr. Mills saw how nationalism and
pseudopatriotism degraded the Olympics. Why, he wondered, are national flags
raised at the medal ceremonies? Why are national anthems played?
If the Games become
contests between hired gladiators of various nations with the idea of building
national prestige or proving that one system of government or other is better
than another, they will have lost all purpose.
"The simplest way to
de-nationalize the medal ceremony," Mr. Mills believes, "is to raise
the Olympic flag and sound an Olympic anthem when awarding the winner. The
Olympic flag, representing the continents on which humanity resides and not the
nation-states artificially created upon them, has become one of the most
recognized positive symbols on the planet. A denationalized ceremony would
simply recognize the accomplishment of the winner—and all competitors—as a
victory for humankind, giving everyone cause to say, 'That is one of our own….'"
McCarthy
continues:
At the 2002 winter games
in Salt Lake City, where he spoke as a representative of the U.S. Athletic
Commission, Mr. Mills expressed those views. He was rebuked as a dreamer, an agitator
and an unpatriotic nag….
Such thinking is beyond
the executives of NBC, the Olympic broadcaster providing coverage—if past
performance means anything—gushingly pro-American. NBC might as well become the
Nationalistic Broadcasting Company….
Think about media coverage with your students. Have they thought about the nationalism
versus patriotism versus internationalism concepts Mills and McCarthy
raise? Probably not.
- Classroom activity to promote
media literacy and a discussion of the nationalism factor of the Olympics: Invite students
to browse lead stories from an international array of news sources during
the time period of the 2012 Olympic Games.
Assign pairs of students to work in teams to represent different
countries. Ask them to count mentions of “their” country’s athletes versus
those of other countries on “frontpage” headlines. (See the link below to REFDESK, a
compendium of national and international online newspapers.) Follow with a discussion of Mills's suggestion of abandoning national flag ceremonies for Olympic flag
ceremonies. I can guarantee an
engaging debate on the symbolic nature of national and international
flags, media focus, and the role of the Olympics in international life.
Think about human rights and the Olympics:
While
McCarthy decries the over-politicization of the Olympics, many wonder why certain
issues are not discussed. Which
countries encourage women to compete? Where
are women’s rights discouraged? What are
the economic barriers to athletes and families?
Which countries support athletic development. Is that support “fair?” What is the role of the Olympian as role
model? Does an athlete on the global
stage have a duty to speak out against human rights abuses in his/her country? What happens to athletes who go “out of
bounds” to bring such questions to the fore?
In
the 1968 example of U.S. gold medalist Tommie Smith and bronze medalist John
Carlos, their demonstration against racism and poverty caused immediate controversy. Most of our students have not heard of Olympians
Smith and Carlos. They should know what they
did on the medal stand—and more importantly—why.
- Classroom activity to discuss the
1968 Mexico Olympic Award Ceremony in which U.S. gold medalist Tommie
Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos raised fists on the podium to bring
attention to human rights issues. Watch several
minutes of the Democracy Now
recap of the race and ceremony (and a compelling interview with Juan
Carlos in 2011). Have students read
Dave Zirin’s Fists of Freedom
article. Pose the following questions for your
students: Is it appropriate for an Olympian to use the award pedestal to
make a statement about human rights in his/her country? Would the American media applaud a Chinese
athlete who did this today? Did the
raised-fist athletes disgrace or enhance the image of the United
States? What happened to the
careers of these athletes compared to their peers? Who supported these athletes’
stands? Why? These and other questions will engage
your students in active thinking about the roles of athletes and the
Olympics.
Think about questions of disability versus ability and
the example of Oscar Pistorius:
Colleague Matt Newcomb and
I involve our 7th and 8th grade debate class students in
this topic with a debate of the appropriateness of runner Oscar Pistorius
competing in the Olympics. What’s the
controversy? Pistorius is a double
amputee from the knee down. Nicknamed “The
Bladerunner,” Pistorius runs with prosthetic limbs—spring-like devices that
have some commentators crying unfair
advantage. Others applaud the
resilience of Pistorius, born without bones in his lower legs, to have made
such strides in the demanding sport. Denied
permission to compete in the 2008 Beijing Games, Pistorius ran in London in 2012. I cried as I watched him run.
- Classroom activity: Invite
students to read the Christian
Science Monitor article about the Pistorius controversy. Let them watch YouTube videos of on-street interviews and his competitions. Using such resources, invite students to
record pros and cons of allowing athletes with prosthetic devices to
compete against so-called “able-bodied” athletes. (Debate that term as well!) In addition to the critical thinking
that will result, awareness of disability rights is but one outcome of
this activity.
Think about sportsmanship and the Games:
Is
it wrong to conserve energy in one race to more effectively compete in
another? Can one fairly fall down after starting
a race to ensure a better re-start?
Should a team “throw” a qualifying match to pull an easier opponent on
the way to the medal stand? These are
questions raised in the 2012 Olympics that will surely engage students. The most visible occurrence of such strategy
was in the badminton qualifying rounds, where top teams were judged to be
playing poorly to fare better against easier opponents later in the
competition. Eight Olympic badminton
players were eliminated from the Games.
But some highly decorated Olympians admit to reserving energy in one
race to better compete later. Is this
unsportsmanlike behavior?
- Classroom activity: The
questions raised in the Los Angeles Times article (and online videos) will
fuel formal debates and informal discussions in your classroom. Consider such questions as the following:
What is the role of sportsmanship in the Olympics? What is the role of sportsmanship at our
school? Does our school have a “win
at all costs” culture? Is it
cheating if you don’t try your best?
Should all students have the opportunity to play some sport during
the school day? Are some sports
valued more highly than others?
Why? Who benefits from the popularity
of sports in our culture? Your
students will take over this discussion, raising numerous issues of
personal and school relevance.
The wrap up:
Regardless of where you stand on the Olympics, they offer opportunities for us
to teach students to think critically. Watching
how we watch the Olympics—as citizens of one country or a global family (or
both?), evaluating the role of Olympic athletes in consciousness raising,
discussing the meaning of able-bodiedness, and bringing questions of
sportsmanship from the Olympics to students’ personal lives are valuable ways for
us to change watching the Olympics to
thinking the Olympics.
Links
to resources:
