Last week a Lehighton soccer club refused to participate in a tournament in Orefield, 14 miles from where some of the kids who crossed the border from Central America were housed. The soccer club coach was afraid of “disease.”
Educators often talk about a “teachable moment.” This happens when some event occurs which can be used to illustrate lessons the students are learning in the classroom.
The actions of the soccer club of Lehighton pulling out of a tournament in Orefield provides us with an excellent “teachable moment.” Teachers who discuss various forms of prejudice and discrimination note how out-groups, or in modern phraseology “the other,” are made to appear as a threat. They may be viewed as having low moral character, or being lazy, or greedy, or disease-ridden, but in any case, they are not “one of us.”
Kids from Central America who are crossing the border can’t really be seen as of low moral character or lazy, but they can be labeled carriers of disease. To define them that way permits people to say, “I’m not really prejudiced, I’m just worried about getting sick.”
Incidentally, if you are an English teacher, you can also use this action as an example of irony. The soccer club that was unwilling to participate in the tournament is called the Carbon United Outcasts.
I wonder how the parents of the kids feel about this coach. Do they agree with him or do they feel differnently. This coach is ignorant! I have to assume that he is living in a glass bubble so he can't catch anything. Does he conduct practices only when there is a north wind?
ReplyDeleteI think the coach should consider moving to Costa Rica with Rush Limbaugh. Since Costa Rica is 200 miles south of the troubled countries he should feel a lot safer. That is a lot farther away than Lehighton is from Orefield. After all these refugees are going north, not south.
Can you imagine what those kids are learning?
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