| It's a time-honored part of physical education classes, a
game where students home in on their classmates across the gym and hurl a rubber ball at
them as hard as they can, hoping to drill their opponents and eliminate them from play.
But these days, dodge ball, the frenetic game played for years with reckless abandon
by school-age children everywhere is itself taking a drubbing—from some educators and
recreation experts who say the game has no place in schools.
Schools and districts across the country have been dropping dodge ball from the
roster of games played in physical education classes. In some cases, school officials
have cited liability concerns. But others have done away with the game because they say
that the message it sends children is inappropriate and incompatible with what schools
should be teaching.
"This is a topic that no matter where you bring it up, never fails to ignite heated
passions," said Neil Williams, the chairman of the health and physical education
department at Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, Conn.
Far from a fan of the game he calls a "lawsuit waiting to happen," Mr. Williams has
even branded dodge ball as a prime "exhibit" in what he calls the "Physical Education
Hall of Shame."
The list originated in a series of articles he wrote in the 1990s for The Journal
of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance. In the articles, Mr. Williams dubs
dodge ball as the worst remnant of games that a new breed of physical education teachers
and health educators say provide little in the way of fitness conditioning and
inappropriately use people as targets.
Other offenders that share the not-so- flattering spotlight include Duck, Duck Goose
and Red Rover.
"Dodge ball is one of those games that encourages aggression and the strong picking
on the weak," said Mr. Williams, who despite his advocacy against dodge ball
begrudgingly admits having taken a liking to the game as a child.
"I have to say I enjoyed it," he said. "I was a skinny little runt of a guy, but I
was incredibly sneaky and nasty in the game."
Fond Memories
School board members in Cecil County, Md., grabbed headlines from coast to coast last
month when they added dodge ball to a list of activities—including tackle football and
boxing—that should be discouraged in gym classes in the 15,500-student district.
Forget talk of test scores and curriculum frameworks; the local newspaper in this
rural county northeast of Baltimore near the Delaware border cast the decision as "The
Dodge Ball Vote."
Suddenly, adults with full-time jobs and other trappings of maturity were arguing
like children on a playground over a game some remembered with fond memories and others
recalled with painful flashbacks.
"This issue kind of snowballed and became emotional," said Lisa Koch, the president
of the Cecil County school board. She said district officials periodically update the
list of games and activities that shouldn't be used in physical education classes.
An 'Eliminating' Game
All the dodge ball bashing is enough to drive Robert Petersen crazy. Mr. Petersen—a
California television producer of "Playground Games," a TV series scheduled for next
year that features adults playing kickball, dodge ball, marbles, and other childhood
games—contends that the anti-dodge-ball forces need to lighten up.
Children enjoy dodge ball, he said, because it is informal, fun, and free of the
structure many sports demand. And at a time when youngsters are overweight, thanks in
part to a combination of junk food and sedentary addictions to games like Sega, going
after dodge ball is counterproductive and a waste of energy, Mr. Petersen argues.
"The bottom line is, if we are going to waste our time worrying, we should worry
about Game Boy," Mr. Petersen said about the popular Nintendo game. "Be glad your kid is
out there interacting and playing in darn near anything."
Judith C. Young, the executive director of the National Association for Sport and
Physical Education, a Reston, Va.-based group that advises school districts on health
and physical education curricula, is not an absolutist in the dodge-ball debate.
But she does argue that other activities are more appropriate for the motion skills
that students are intended to learn in a game like dodge ball. "We really don't think it
is a good instructional activity," Ms. Young said. "But that doesn't mean we think it
should never be played."
Not having players sit down after they have been hit, along with other variations on
the rules, can make the game less exclusive, Ms. Young added. "Usually," she said, "it
is the kids who need the most practice who get eliminated first."
The association promotes the idea that other games in which only a few students at a
time are active, such as relay races, also should be replaced with activities that
ensure all students are exercising.
With all the sound and fury over dodge ball, some physical education teachers seem to
have put the matter to rest on their own simply by not playing the game in classes.
"It's not a part of our program, and it is not recommended," said Terri McCauley, the
coordinator of physical education for the Montgomery County, Md., schools.
Ms. McCauley said the game, with its emphasis on using other players as targets to be
knocked off one by one, doesn't fit with the 134,300-student district's physical
education curriculum, which is designed to promote the social, emotional, and physical
growth of students.
But in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second- largest
district, the game is still played in schools, said Cricket Bauer, a spokeswoman for the
723,000-student system. "It is up to the individual school," she said. "It is monitored
by the principal and the athletic director."
A New Following
Ironically, at the same time that some school districts are eliminating dodge ball
from their physical education programs, the game has gained a substantial following
among youths, and even adults, in community recreation leagues.
Richard Hanetho, the director of the National Amateur Dodge Ball Association, a group
in Schaumburg, Ill., that formed last year and hosts the country's only national
dodge-ball tournaments for youth and adults, regularly receives calls and e-mails from
students angry that they no longer play the game in gym class.
But while he is an outspoken booster of a game that is flourishing in the Schaumburg
Park District, the parks and recreation agency he works for, Mr. Hanetho focuses on
promoting interest in the game through the association's tournaments and prefers to the
avoid debate over dodge ball in schools.
He believes that individual gym teachers should decide whether dodge ball is
appropriate for youngsters in their classes. He said, though, that he finds it hard to
believe that dodge ball poses a serious threat, considering the many other problems
children must contend with these days.
Indoor and outdoor national tournaments held in Schaumburg have attracted youth and
adult teams from around the country. In early January, 26 teams competed in the adult
men's division. To critics who say the game is too dangerous for youths, Mr. Hanetho
emphasizes that tournament games are played with a Nerf ball, and that no injuries have
been reported after hundreds of matches.
As an indicator of the growing interest in dodge ball, Mr. Hanetho noted that he has
given numerous media interviews about the game and just recently a local radio and
television station ran a live broadcast of a dodge-ball game.
And then there was the man who called from India to ask about starting a dodge-ball
association there.
"The attention has caught us a bit off guard," Mr. Hanetho said. "The game is
universal. No matter who you talk to, they can share a dodge-ball story. It's a fun game
to play."
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