Michael Sylvester wrote:
> This pertains to Developmental.
> An important aspect of Palestinian youth development is the ability to
> throw rocks.Apart from the political implications and impact of this
> behavior,my interest is in the atheletic and sports implications of such
> an early development skills training.
You're starting from an inaccurate assumption.
The ability to throw rocks is, far from being an important aspect of
Palestinian youth development, a contra-survival activity which increases
the likelihood of early mortality in the individual. Thus it is
devolutionary instead of evolutionary and reduces the likelihood of
perpetuating the genes of the individual involved.
Apart from that, the assumption is patently ethnocentric--something I
wouldn't have expected from you. If someone stated that: "An important
aspect of African-American youth development in inner city America is the
ability to loot businesses and burn one's neighborhood to the ground," you
would have been justifiably outraged that anyone would assume that to be
true. Yet your narrow perspective on Palestinian youth presents exactly
the same degree of ethnocentric thinking!
Throwing rocks (or looting stores) are negative responses to
environmental conditions based on political climate not on human
development models--and do _not_ represent the optimum responses.
> For examples,the best cricketers in the history of the West Indies began
> with practicing early in childhood with small mangoes and breadfruit
> -sharepening their skills. Some of the best baseball players from the
> Porto Rico,Cuba and the Dominican Republic probably began the sport
> with any object they can throw at a batsman in the rural parts
> of thgese Caribbean states.And the same for Jai Alai players from the
> Basque region of Europe.
All undoubtedly true--but all representing a _positive_ application of
the concept of throwing an object and carrying positive outcomes for the
person who is skilled at the technique.
> I contend that Palestinian youth who are excellent in rock throwing
> could probably be directed to channel this targeted behavior to playing
> baseball where their skills could be developed in the pitching domain.
And inner city gang-bangers could have their skills with automatic
weapons redirected to military service--but that doesn't mean that
experience performing drive-by shootings is a potentially positive life
experience!
Sorry, Michael, but you need to be less Eurocentric in your assessment of
the Middle Eastern cultures if you want to accurately develop concepts
that will actually apply to them in a positive manner.
Rick
--
Rick Adams
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"... and the only measure of your worth and your deeds will be the love
you leave behind when you're gone. --Fred Small, Everything Possible "
