Shoes And School Board Members Flying By The Same Rules

Last week I had the occasion to play in a kick ball game with a group of young kids. While this was an activity I used to supervise daily, I haven't done it for several years. Due to scheduling accommodations, I relieved one of the two young adults so that he could go do another task.

I was unfamiliar with the culture of this group's afternoon activities. I also came into an already underway game. I took my place on "my team" as the other team had a young adult already engaged. We are big on "engaging"... it leads to many positive experiences and increases communication skills which lessens frustrated behavior.

I digress. My team was up to kick. One little boy attempted to kick the ball and his shoe flew off. He put it back on, and then repeated this action with the next pitch.

I then asked him if I could tighten his Velcro to see if that would help. He said yes, and he then kicked the ball a short distance (bunt?) and was able to make it to first base. In this brief amount of time, I ranked him as an emerging kickballer, and surmised that he must get picked last a lot.

Back in the day, my favorite "team picking" strategy was to have the captains pick the other's team. The "always picked last" kids then got picked first. These low-on-the-kickball-bell-curve kids didn't care what the implication was, all they knew was they were "FIRST"!

I digress again.

After our three outs, we took the field. Our pitcher was the oldest, biggest, dominant girl. I wasn't sure if she was the "all time pitcher", but she was the commander of "her" team. Back in the day, I had strategies to help others learn to command too, and also help some to learn how to receive commands. But this day, I wanted to learn the culture first and it would be counter productive for me to interject too much.

I digress.

It wasn't long before a kicker on the opposing team attempted to kick the ball, and his shoe flew off. My dominant pitcher immediately yelled "He's out!".

I hesitantly asked "how come?". She said "because Mr. Joe says if your shoe comes off, you are out". Sure enough, Mr. Joe wasn't there to verify. But I had a more pressing question.

"How come when our guy kicked and his shoe came off, no one said he was out?"

I received a blank look with no noticeable facial movement. It was as if I had sold out my own team.

So I explained that if a rule is a rule, it must be applied fairly. If it wasn't called when our guy kicked, then we can't enforce it now. I asked her why she didn't speak up when our guy's shoe flew off and she blew it off with an "I don't know".

The game went on, and no one else had a shoe malfunction.

This scenario reminds me of the local HCPS school board's enforcement of "traveling fees". It is only called out when it is convenient to gain an edge over your opponents.