There is Heightism Discrimination in the Gardner, Kansas School District
My son is in the same class as:
New England Patriots football player Wes Welker
Former Olathe resident, Darren Sproles, of the San Diego Chargers
Dustin Pedroia, 2008 American League MVP and Professessional Baseball Player
and former NBA basketball player Michael Jordan.
They have all been discriminated and/or stereotyped negatively.
There are all types of discrimination, in the forms of stereotypes, bias’s and prejudices. When you think Asians what do you think? How about Latino Boys? All fat people are? You see we live with stereotypes every day.
Analyzing the situation, discrimination is picking on the minority. Black people, Jews, the disabled, American Indians are all viewed as legitimate groups. They have all been discriminated against at one time and demanded their rights. Now overweight people are demanding their rights. Where are the rights of short people? Height discrimination, according to a Princeton researcher in a study, “is the biggest reason for emotional anguish in adolescent boys in the United States. Tall boys typically result in intellectual superiority latter in adulthood.” A conclusion from the study was that teachers and coaches pay more attention to the tall boys. Parents play into this by thinking that since their child is bigger maybe they are ready for school quicker. How many people have laughed at the song against short people they “got no reason to live” by Randy Newman? ” Height discrimination is a new form of discrimination. Many researches have tabbed Adolescent Height Discrimination has the worst form of discrimination because it affects youths well into adulthood.
Although there have been many short professional athletes like the ones mentioned at the beginning that have won distinguished MVP awards, sports commentators on ESPN and Fox Sports still call short athletes names like little man or compare them to looking more like a waiter in a restaurant.
Although Darren Sproles in his Olathe high school years won many awards and was even picked as a USA Today Kansas Player of the Year, many Colleges passed on Darren because of his size. I was even told by old youth coach of Darren's that Darren wanted to play for Kansas University (KU), but KU passed on him because of his small size. KU was afraid he would get demolished on the field I guess. Darren ended up being 11th in rushing yards and 6th in all purpose yards on the NCAA all-time list at Kansas State University. Darren in fact starred in one of the greatest college football games in history when he led the Kansas State Wildcats over the highly favored #1 Sooners in the 2003 Big 12 Championship. Today Darren is the shortest active professional football player.
In society, according to Adele Horin, “small-minded people confuse a lack of height with a lack of authority.
No matter how tall boys later become, the undersized adolescent may never escape his “inner shrimp”, says cartoonist Garry Trudeau.” Although Garry is no researcher he studies people for a living.
Another Princeton research says,“Height bias is just not something considered worth quibbling with- and when you actually do, it’s scoffed at and ignored. It’s like a bad joke-surely you’re kidding right? The reality is that short people experience discrimination. The lack of public acknowledgment that it even exists makes experiencing it worse. It’s like the doctor telling you there’s nothing wrong with you-it’s all in your head. I would find the plenty of taller people would find the existence of sites like Short Person’s Support to be completely ridiculous.”
“I think there is an “Institutional Bias” toward athletes.” Says blogger Steve Marchbank.
“I noticed that expectations are higher for short boys then for tall boys, Says sports trainer Frank Wright, after my evaluation of youth basketball teams for over 20 years. Coaches will use different words to describe tall players then they would short players. Is this right, no. Then why does it happen if it is wrong. It happens because society has accepted it. A coach can’t discriminate against protected classes like a disability or color. But when it comes to height, the coach can do a form of discrimination like stereotyping.”
After learning about my son’s cut from the basketball team, I helped him put it in context. I told him about the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan got cut on his youth basketball team. That seemed to spark a light bulb in my son. He didn’t understand why he was cut. He felt that he had a great shot, made layups great and had a 3-point shot. My wife suggested that he talk to the coach and find out what he needs to work on for the next year. Sounds good doesn’t it. My wife even offered to email the coach and my son liked the idea.
Now here is the bomb shell. When my 12 year old son asked the Gardner coach with glossy terry eyes what he could do to improve, The Gardner coach told my son that he had a great shot and good moves but he was just too short.
"People in authority will very easily make comments about height that they wouldn't make about race or gender," said Frankel, a Marblehead author.
A Writer Joe Mangano writes that all people stereotype. Why don’t clubs and bars hire 5’7” 140lb. 5th degree black belts as bouncers?- Because no one would be intimidated by them. People are intimated by size. People are intimated by men who are tall, and either very heavy or muscular or both. Isn’t it only natural to associate lack of size or height with weakness and vulnerability?” I had a meeting with the Gardner coach. When I asked the Gardner Coach in a meeting what he was looking for in basketball players, he said he wanted tall boys with bulk. He even used the words that my boy was physically not as mature. Which is ironic because my son is a registered black belt and champion martial arts expert. Three parents who know my son have said that my son is more mature then their high school sons. One parent even said that my son is the most mature middle school kid that they have ever known and since they are a 15 year veteran middle school teacher that must mean something, right? Every school review for my son by his teachers has been extremely favorable. We hear how mature and outstanding he is and how hard he works.
When I asked the Gardner Coach what he told my son not even 24 hours earlier. He all of sudden had amnesia and couldn’t remember. Then after pressing him, he told the Gardner School Administrator that he told my son to work on drills and that he flat out never said anything about his size or even mentioned it. I asked him how many cut players came up and asked him and he said my son was the only one. I asked the Gardner Coach about his statements that he wrote to my wife that “I don't think (son), has physically matured as much as some of the other boys, and that makes a big difference.” I asked him how he was defining physically matured. I also asked him to explain is remarks in the emails to my wife that “so that meant I had to pick those four players primarily on size and mass (doesn't seem fair does it?)”.
Is the Gardner Coach confusing physical maturity with Height? I guess my middle kid is really going to have problems. He is a year younger then my older son. Most people say his cute and adorable. Words that people use for small people. When I tell them he is a 50 pound 6th grader and he benches 3 times his weight and is a champion martial arts expert and got first place at state in Martial arts, people go “WOW”. If the Gardner Coach would of told my son that his basketball abilities were not good enough to make the team and you need to work on these drills and maybe you will have a better shot next year, which would have been great. My son would have written down the drills, researched them and I promise you practiced them everyday. Instead, the Gardner Coach decided to say that he is physical not mature and too small. If size was not an issue and it was only my son's lack of ability, why would the coach mention size?
NBA player and former University of Michigan star Jalen Rose attributed much of his success to his high school coach, Perry Watson. "He was more than just a basketball coach. He was my counselor. Any time I'd want to talk, just gain knowledge, I'd take my lunch down to his office and talk, and find out about guys that made it, and guys that didn't, and what I could do to make it." Since Rose's father was gone and his mother worked long hours to support the family, Watson played an important role in his life. Coaches are not just coaches. They are mentors, counselors, advisers, father figures and so forth.
Arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan said, “The hardest thing I had endured in life was getting cut from my school basketball team because of my size. I think that not making the team drove me to really work at my game, and also taught me that if you set goals, and work hard to achieve them—the hard work can pay off.” Michael didn’t understand why the coach judged him for his lack of size and not his ability. His taller brother who had less ability made the team, according to an ESPN announcer.
Dr. Andrew Jacobs, who has helped many professional and Olympic athletes says “make rejection a catalyst to help athletes grow and develop, this negative situation can become a positive out of a negative.” Don’t talk to kids on things they don’t have control over and offer examples of drills that the can use to improve their skills.
When my son didn’t make first or second string on either offense or defense for the football team this past season he was told that he would probably have limited playing time. He didn’t get down. He worked hard to be a team player. He studied all the plays and knew them inside and out. When some boys were griping about the weather or plays, my boy was in there being positive. In football small players are called undersized players. The last half of the season he was on first string on offense, defense and special teams. A few games he even played every play.
The new internet buzz word for height stereotyping and discrimination is Heightism. Try looking it up in the dictionary. It is not there. Is Heightism serious. Heightism is cited as one of the underlying causes of the Rwandan Genocide, in which approximately one million people were killed. It is believed that one of the reasons that political power was conferred to the minority Tutsis by the exiting Belgians was because they were taller and therefore (in the eyes of the Belgians) considered superior and more suited to governance.
Another issue about the Gardner Coach noting my sons size is his self esteem. Some researchers speculate that the lower levels of achievement of men in later life may be partly largely explained by this lower self esteem in their adolescent years.
Although health organizations have concluded that height discrimination contributes to negative stress and is associated with heart disease, pain and many illnesses such as respiratory illness, little has been done to stop height discrimination.
A study by researches at Michigan State University in which they demonstrated that short people are often judged unfairly and inferior to tall men in several personal attributes. They concluded that people judged taller as more socially attractive, higher in professional status, more masculine, more athletically inclines and more physically attractive.
Currently, there is one state in the United States of America, Michigan, that prohibits height discrimination.There is pending legislation introduced by Massachusetts Representative Byron Rushing which would add Massachusetts to the list. Two municipalities currently prohibit height discrimination: Santa Cruz, California and San Francisco, California. The District of Columbia prohibits discrimination based on personal appearance.. Ontario, Canada prohibits height discrimination under the human rights code. Victoria, Australia prohibits discrimination based on physical features under the Equal Opportunity Act of 1995.
Should Kansas, the state that started the Civil Rights with the Brown Vs. Board of Education (with the ending of discrimination against youngsters of African-American decent), start the addition of protecting short people on the national level?
“Perhaps shortness will one day receive judicial acceptance in its own rights as a prohibited grounds of discrimination, “ Law Professor Peter Bowal said. “ Height has historically correlated with social power.” Another Law Professor said in a video on Youtube that driving down the street and thinking the drwaf walking down the street is a midget is stereotyping. Once you yell out the window "Midget, Shrimp and little people have no reason to (fill in the blank)" you have crossed the line into discrimination. If you don't think it hurts you are a fool.
What can be developed out of this unfortunate event? “Ultimately, you can’t change the world through litigation, says the University of Washington Professor Steven Miller.“You’ll have to change the hearts and minds of culture.”
I’m not upset that my son didn’t make the basketball team. I just think it is terrible that a public educational institution still practices discrimination. Let’s be fair to the kids. There is enough nervousness going on with kids. Now they know that they will not be treated fairly. Don’t you think that will add to the stress? A Gardner Administrator agreed that he would be upset if his son was told what my son was told. He also agreed that it appears that the kids weren’t treated fairly. Is it accepted? Yes. Is it right? No.
Should we have coaches coaching our kids that don't instill values and are fair in our schools? How important are the other attributes of being a coach like honesty, integrity, counseling, mentoring and advising be to our coaches. Should we have coaches in our schools that are so fixated about winning that they lose the other characteristics like attitude and character building? Many professional athletes refer to their coaches as a major influence in their lives. I would like to see a middle school environment that was fair and free of stereotyping and discrimination of all kinds.