Running+Like+a+Girl-+Involvement+of+Girls+in+Sports

student number: 07358687 Name: Sai He
 * Tutor/Time:** Sophie Miller, 2-3pm Thursday



=Cultural Artefact= This is an Olympic statue, showing the enthusiasm of women for the Olympic Games. From the statue, we can see that a woman is running, carefully and dedicatedly. It proves the passion of women’s participation in sport. The woman of the statue is in high spirits and well-built, showing the benefits of taking part in sports. The aim of the statue is showing the availability and merits of women’s involving in sports. As a cultural statue, to be more specific, a sports statue, it awakes the passion of woman to take excise, especially for girls in adolescence and young women. = = =Public Health Issue= Nowadays, health is becoming more and more important. Every day, there are a lot of appeals of taking part in sports, which attract the attention of public, especially the fat persons and beautiful-loved girls in adolescence and young women. For girls and young women, taking part in sports not long can keep health, good to the body, but also can stay them a beautiful figure. To young girls, they are not aware of these merits, but by growing up, they know and show great enthusiasm for sports. Government also establishes some program to encourage girls and young women to participate in sports. =Literature Review= Plenty of studies demonstrate that girls don’t like sports. Unlike boys, in the way of growing up, competitiveness, independence and self-expression of girls are not encouraged, so they faced conflicts in sports (Adelman, 1998). This may be because of some important aspects of movement behaviours are incompatible with the expectations the traditional society shows to girls. Some people argue that many girls in the competitive situation may show “fear of success”, so is on the other side of the life, and they may lack special killer instinct of champions in sports. Along with the progress of the education reform, on the surface, primary school students seemed to reduce the burden, but actually, the schoolwork burden is increased (Anderson, 2005).

As girls grow up to adolescence, this condition has been changed. As time goes by, they learn all kinds of knowledge, of course sports included. They gradually know the importance of physical condition and then the sense of practice has emerged. At the same time, the sense of beauty is another important reason. Entering into adolescence, girls pay much attention to their outside appearances and figure. They know keeping practice not only stay them a good health, but also a charming figure. The fact is also so. Research has discovered, for girls who love and do sports, the content of mineral substance in the bone increase (Alasker, 1992). On the contrary, girls who dislike sports always be company with poor health and weight is also high. To achieve the health of the body well-balanced, it is necessary to ensure the balance of body, paying attention to the component. Sports can make it. Doing exercise regularly can promote metabolism, enhance immunity, consume quantity of heat to control weight, increase heart and lung function and reduce accident harm. All in all, sports can not only keep people have a healthy physical condition, but also can lose weight and keep a handsome figure. Girls in adolescence realize this, so their enthusiasm for involving in sports is high.

As well known, single-sex education is a type of education, referring to that school receives only boys or girls as students or the same school class in boys and girls live apart. This type of education originated from U.S., aiming at cultivating the future politicians, scientists and leaders from all walks of life for society (Bruns, 1993). The same, single-sex physical education classes are that boys and girls separated in physical education classes. They have their unique physical programs and cannot cooperate to carry out one thing. According to the natural differences, boys and girls separately participate in different sports, thus fully displaying their own capacities and talents (Hom & Claytor, 1993). In this way, talent and potential can be developed fully and absolutely, and boys or girls present their wisdom and ability separately. Boys show more masculine and girls are better at cooperation. The result is that strengths will be stronger. Single-sex education has been controversial since its appearance. The heated issue is whether or not single-sex education benefit for the sex relation between boys and girls (Nummenmaa, Hyona & Calvo, 2006). As far as concerned, though single-sex education can avoid some problems, it cannot resolve the problem radically. The core value of education is providing equal education, which does not consider region, sex, nationality and social background (Reimann & McNally, 1995). Middle school physical education of Norway is a good example. In physical classes, boys and girls often have close physical contact, even sometimes the contact is so close that they can feel the breathing and heartbeat, but they not only have no any adultery, but more gentle and harmonious. So, boys and girls living close physical education, not only can promote the harmony of association among them, but also is a kind of common education. In this position, single-sex physical education classes is not good for improving the understanding between boys and girls and destroying the harmony of association among them. This is the demerit of single-sex physical education.

In modern society, the sense of practice has been prevailing. From the young to the old, everyone pays much attention to the physical conditions. A healthy physical condition is the precondition of everything. To girls in adolescence and young women, sports not only help them keep a good health, but also stay them a handsome figure. Because of this, their enthusiasm for sports is very high. Considering the importance of sports, government launched a series of programs to keep girls and young women active through adolescence. These programs have played an important role.Active extracurricular community project is a national project, providing a planned fitness activity freely for all primary students. This project legally asks all primary students, including boys and girls, to take part in regular fitness activities, which in some extent keeps girls active in sports. Because of this project, the enthusiasm of primary students for sports is becoming higher, not only boys, but also girls. The survey reveals that some girls who do not like practice before, have gradually taken interest in sports, which greatly enhances their physical conditions. Australian women’s sports and leisure association (AWRA) is an organization which aims at encouraging young women to take an active part in sports and leisure entertainment. In this AWRA, women can do exercise to keep a good health, communicate with peers freely and finally maybe make good friends with each other, which all stimulate their enthusiasm to join in the association and keep young women active through adolescence. “Active Australia” is a newly launched public sports development plan, aiming at waking up the sense of practice through Australia and keeping all Australians good physical condition (Wheeler & Bragin, 2007). Owing to this plan, Australians further understand the importance of the movement, which further stimulates them to take part in sports and other movement. From this standpoint, this new plan greatly and effectively improves the participation of the public in sports, thus keeping girls and young women active in sports. Netball, which only exists in Australia and New Zealand, has attracted many young women to take part. Netball game, which is similar to basketball, is held every year by government. It not only attracts professional players to take part, but also draws many young women to watch the match. The netball also makes young women active in sports. These programs, government have launched, have played an irreplaceable role in stimulating the enthusiasm of Australians to take part in sports and thus enhancing the physical condition of residents. Of course, all these programs have also worked to keep girls and young women active in sports through adolescence. = = =Cultural and Social Analysis= To the primary school aged girls, they also do not like sports. Because of their young age, they even have not a clear understanding of sports, let alone the involvement. That is to say, the enthusiasm of the primary school aged girls for sports is not high. There are several reasons which can account for this phenomenon. First of all, owing to their ages, the sense of practice has not enough to incentive them to do so. The primary school aged girls are usually under ten years old, they have not many experience and many sense of taking practice, so from their point of view, sports is not so important that they pay less or no attention to them. Secondly, playing is the nature of children, not only boys, but also girls. In the age of carefree, children always want to go playing, not taking sports into account. Though parents know the benefits of doing sports, because of their love for their children, they cannot bear to force their little children to participate in sports at seeing the expression of pain. Finally, the energy of children is limited, aside from study and playing, they have not enough time and energy to do other thing, let alone the tiring sports. In addition, parents always expect that their children can be versatile persons, so children usually go to kinds of specialty training classes on Sundays. These take up most of the time of children. So to children whose energy is limited, apart from the study and playing, they may not have the energy and time to take part in physical exercise. All three causes above result in the less enthusiasm of girls for practice and sport.

Since the birth, single-sex physical education is controversial. Some people support it while others are against it. From my point of view, to single-sex physical education classes, there are merits and demerits. Single-sex physical education has some benefits. As is known to all, boys and girls have different body qualities, so some sports are fit for boys while others are fit for girls. Boys are fit for sports which consume much energy and physical power while girls are good at sports that require flexibility, cooperation, and so on. In addition, single-sex physical education has another important benefit. Boys and girls in adolescence are usually curious to the opposite sex. At this time, they may easily fall in love, which affects the normal development, let alone study. Especially in physical class, special sports clothing may make them imagine more, then disturbing their inner peace. Single-sex physical education classes can effectively avoid this condition. We know that some sports call for cooperation, thus not avoiding physical contact. If boys and girls frequently have physical contacts, there may be some inevitable gender problems, which may lead to serious consequences. From this point of view, single-sex education often can be seen to make boys and girls less subject to the problem of the feelings.

Education should not only teach knowledge, but also pay attention to develop attitude, emotion and life skills of students. In the process of cultivating students, school especially pay attention to the psychological change of teenagers. So boys and girls can’t be separated absolutely. In fact, teenagers can teach themselves. How boys and girls get along with each other? Maybe, only in the contact can they know and realize it exactly. As the saying goes, the most dangerous place is often the safest. It may be wiser and more sensible to allow boys and girls keep public close contact. In the contact, the mystery between them disappear, thus reduce spirit imagining, and they can enhance mutual understanding, which contributes to the well get along.

=Analysis and Own Learning Reflections=

This Olympic statue shows the enthusiasm of women for the Olympic Games. From it, we can see that a woman is running, carefully and dedicatedly. It presents the great passion of women’s participation in sports. The benefits of taking part in sports are fully showed by the high spirits and well-built of the woman statue. In my opinion, the statue is aiming at showing the availability and merits of women’s involving in sports and the spirits of the Olympic Games. From my point of view, the statue is a good case in point of my topic and issue. Firstly, it shows the importance of participating in sports. Secondly, it stresses that women should keep interest in sports. Thirdly, it encourages the passion of women’s participation in sports, not lonely Olympic Games, but also the normal time. In conclusion, as a cultural statue, to be more specific, a sports statue, it awakes the passion of woman to take excise, especially for girls in adolescence and young women. To me, the statue awakes my enthusiasm for sports to keep healthy and a good figure. From this assessment piece, I learn that girls and young women should keep great enthusiasm for sports. By doing this, they can keep a good physical condition and a beautiful figure to satisfy their beautiful-loved heart. In addition, from the point of learning and thinking process, like the different phases of the attitude of girls to sports, I should consider things dynamically and comprehensively and think critically to learn the essence of things. Finding out reasons behind and seeing essence through phenomena is my future attitude to anything, which is beneficial to my future development.

**My Discussion (Reflection Task)**

PAGE: Adolescent Girls too Afraid to Play Sport due to Body Image Issues

Hello, I think you did good jobs in your wiki which sounds really interesting. I love the title because it clearly shows the thesis statement of your essay. And I think the artefact is a perfect examples of this issue. You have talked about the reason why young girls do not like to playing sports. You also provided the references from reputable sources. Additionally, you well done in analysing the government programs for improving girls participation in sports. Finally, I agreed that you said your topic is an eye opener as it shows how adolescence views on sport and physical activity considerably changes within such a short time. Good luck for completing your wiki!!

PAGE: Lost in Translation- Technological Takeover of Generation Y

In my opinion, you analysed the public issue very well which is about the contributions of Generation Y. Also, the artefact you chose describes the physical and psychological take over generation Y which is experiencing as a consequence of the constant evolution and overuse of technology and communication technology in our society. I can clearly see that you dealt with the topic intensively and did in-depth research. Particularly well presented the relation between information and communication technology and Gen Y's social patterns and lifestyles. You also addressed the government programs to empower young Australians to build and create success in their lives. All in all, I think this is a very successful piece of writing.