Homeschoolers Not Welcome at Spur MTB League

[Kevin07]

This entire argument is semantic at best and the question posed has actually been answered in a number of well articulated and objective posts here already. Or is the real resistance from the schools and some governing bodies themselves? 

 

There is no predetermined unfairness in allowing home schooled learners to take part. Otherwise do away with the whole podium nonsense anyway. The very nature of their participation contributes to the strength of the series as a whole.

Here's another question, what about the kids whose parents have deep pockets and are able to rock up on sub 10kg bikes costing 100k or more?

 

Thats in the problem. The whole series is guided by the bigger schools and pushy parents.

The organizer are to scared to upset them so they wont allow home schoolers to participate.

Maybe a push from Spur might change things.

[Paddaman]

 

Or the women with too high testosterone counts?

 

Only when they start competing against the men......

[Gen]

Nobody said that, but they could obviously train from 5am til 9am and then start their school day...

But isn't life all about time management..nothing stops the school going child from training the same amount of hours a day..just later in the day..also I'd be really concerned if school kids are training 4 hrs a day..how to burn out a kid in one easy step.

 

They should just be honest and say.. the schools support us a we are putting their interests first...(iF that is the case.)

 

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[Danger Dassie]

It's actually a very possible reality - kids being pulled from traditional schools to focus on sports is pretty common practice. 

 

Where does one draw the line? 

 

When does the perceived rights of a select few override the greater good?

How so, where is it documented and communicated that this is occurring within home schooled enviroments? That can only happen in a vacuum of appropriate framework. In fact schools themselves have been known to pull sporting talent from other areas.

Some school and parent governing bodies who are traditional sport focussed are resistant to allowing cycling as they feel they could lose talent to cycling.

If anything traditional schools cant even accommodate the scale of learner enrolments every year.

 

Homeschoolers are legally recognised and within the line, drawing the line is accommodating it into a stronger schools league that encourages and nurtures young talent. Not penalising it.

 

This is making a very disingenuous statement with this last line. There is no separation of the two and it's exactly what everyone is talking about. Or is it a round about way of saying that some school orgs/individuals behind the scenes are pushing an agenda?

[Paddaman]

Thanks to Eldron on the "Hot off the Press" thread the following is the mission of the Spur League:

 

PARTICIPATION

Historically, cross-country mountain biking is an individual sport, with very few structured team competitions in place.

This stems from the fact that World Championship and Olympic participation is done on an individual basis. Individual participation has made it difficult for mountain biking to compete against the mainstream sports like rugby, cricket, hockey and netball where the focus is on “team” and “school” and not the individual.

A school builds its sporting reputation based on the annual strength of their teams, and one can find a direct correlation between team strength and the quality of the programme behind the sport.

 

The League focuses mainly on High Schools, but in many regions provision is made to accommodate junior schools as this boosts numbers at smaller events and allows for a feeder system to develop. In Gauteng, for example, there will not be enough room to manage all the additional categories.

 

In short, participation in the League is open to all school children, irrespective of whether the school has an MTB programme or not. However, participation in the Inter-schools Final is based on overall performance of school teams.

 

Ideally, we’d like to see the schools supporting by encouraging participation of current and new riders, appointing school team managers and coaches, driving the entry and team registration process, assisting with transport to events, building local school practice tracks, arranging inter-school competitions and providing school branding at Spur MTB League events.

 

So there you have it the Spur League is an attempt to create a MTB team sport, ran on an inter school basis so as to get mountain biking recognised as a mainstream school sport.  From a mission perspective home schooling is not mentioned or even considered. 

 

IT WAS SIMPLY NOT MEANT OR DESIGNED FOR HOME SCHOOLED CHILDREN, so if they are accommodated it is only as an after thought.

[Titleist]

But isn't life all about time management..nothing stops the school going child from training the same amount of hours a day..just later in the day..also I'd be really concerned if school kids are training 4 hrs a day..how to burn out a kid in one easy step.

 

They should just be honest and say.. the schools support us a we are putting their interests first...(iF that is the case.)

 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

 

Training for 2 hours a day as a teen isn't going to cut it in cycling, especially if a child wants to compete at pro level after school. Competing as a pro means eating, living sleeping, breathing that sport.

[scotty]

Well for someone that's its been suggested has oodles of time to train she really is pushing it then. Up at who knows what time, ride to the start and off at 4:40am how many "main stream" school kids do this. 

[Danger Dassie]

Training for 2 hours a day as a teen isn't going to cut it in cycling, especially if a child wants to compete at pro level after school. Competing as a pro means eating, living sleeping, breathing that sport.

Not sure I agree on this, are you a coach? Would be interesting for this to be quantified. Albeit an entirely seperate topic altogether.

[Patchelicious]

Nobody said that, but they could obviously train from 5am til 9am and then start their school day...

They could. They could also not. 

 

Basing policy on hypotheticals is so dangerous. Home schoolers could easily respond by saying that normal school kids could "dope" much easier because of inter school competition like in rugby. I know this is a stupid argument, but so is "they could train more".... 

 

Let the kids race.

[Danger Dassie]

They could. They could also not. 

 

Basing policy on hypotheticals is so dangerous. Home schoolers could easily respond by saying that normal school kids could "dope" much easier because of inter school competition like in rugby. I know this is a stupid argument, but so is "they could train more".... 

 

Let the kids race.

 

Well if Craven week is anything to go by.

[hubbernero]

Here's a crazy question, what if having home schoolers is not good for the greater good of the league?

How would home schoolers on the podiums reflect on official schools? What if you have a podium one day of only home schoolers - after all they don't have the constraints of a formal school upbringing to cut into their training time. Hard to get in enough training when you are at school from 7am to 3pm? Would the schools support the league still if they aren't getting the results... are schools not largely judged on results?

 

How would all the schools feel when they start losing pupils to home schooling because it allows kids to focus on their cycling above their general education? Schools are businesses too. Home schooling is unfortunately in opposition to traditional schooling methods. 

 

 

 

I'm sure somebody mentioned already that the "ghost riders" don't get to stand on the podium, if i'm not mistaken. As it currently works in the other provinces.

 

So are you saying that the home school kids are neglecting their education for the sake of riding their bicycles? I'm sure the parents who made the decision to home school their kids will agree with you, not....

 

Home schooling doesn't just require a kid, who doesn't want to go to a traditional school, so that he/she can ride his/her bicycle more. It also requires very commited and willing parents.

[Shaun Green]

So...we're on 144 posts. If the average post took 2 minutes to compile we're on 288 minutes.

 

That's just under 5 hours that could have been spent on lobbying:  http://www.spurmtbleague.co.za/contact/   

The various parties were contacted previously, but we found no desire to engage constructively.

[Pipsqueak]

seriously?

 

Reading is a gift

Seriously what?

[Thor Buttox]

For the people who want to say this is awful if she is included, the best thing would be to race as individuals and not for the school, as home schooling is better than schools.

 

For the people who want to say it is great she is excluded, the best thing would be for the rest to race as individuals, as some schools are still better than others, and her participation doesn't change that for the rest of them in shitty little schools competing against the big boys.

 

Itvs not about schooling but about desire and dedication and if we really want to be honest, in some cases, PED's.

 

(Yes I know - not all. But let s focus on the real issue here which is simple participation)

[porqui]

Here's a crazy question, what if having home schoolers is not good for the greater good of the league?

 

Sometimes you just can't make everyone happy -

 

Answer to your crazy question - bull**** or bollocks .

 

And sometimes you can make everyone happy - like in this instance.

 

It is quite simple really

[Andrew Steer]

There are a number of 'traditional' schooling parents that insist their kids on just as or more rigorous training programme too. And quality training is not necessarily time based either.

Objectively speaking this generic argument does not wash. 

Getting dragged off on a tangent here... you are correct in many ways. I don't want to debate training, bikes, tech etc. It's about focus as much as anything... lots of home schoolers get pulled from traditional schools because the parents want to focus on a specific sport. This will in some cases work out well for them and make them stronger athletes if done correctly. Time is not just required for training, but recovery, skills, nutrition etc

 

These kids will very likely interfere with the racing based on the above, dilute the podiums or even the perception thereof and you weaken the events. The prestige of this event is what get two or three serious riders from a top school there, as well as a bus full of participants to the events. Interfere with that formula, break away from the driving force of the schools and the mass participation they bring and you could well take away from the magic of the series.

 

Let's see where this goes though, debate is good, we all learn and garner better understanding, but things like petitions and slander of brands who are doing the world of good is embarrassing and counter productive. 

 

Let's not shoot ourselves in the foot please