If you'd like to help with my research paper...

[remistress]

Hi, sorry to solicit help again but I think this is at least an interesting topic to discuss. If you wouldn't mind me quoting you in my paper, please specify in you post.

I'm writing a paper for a child psychology class. Recently we were required to read books from a list, and I chose the one I had already bought called "Under Deadman's Skin". The book (which I was skeptical about at first) is the first-hand account of a kindergarten teacher and her class which had an odd obsession with violence. Instead of censor their play (some involved a game called 'suicide' where children were forced to commit suicide by another child), she worked with the children to help create more appropriate social norms from within their groups (sometimes unsuccessfully). Her conclusion was that children's fascination with violence can actually sometimes be their way of making sense of the world around them, and censoring them removed a valuable learning process. I began to muse about how sports creates a similar controlled environment to express aggression...which led me to my paper.

Anyhow, I already have an interview with my coach on the following questions, however, more voices would add interest to the paper. So, if you'd like to answer the questions...please do, and if you don't mind me quoting you, please specify in your post!

1. Do sports create a controlled environment for aggression?
2. Are sports cathartic, or do they increase a person’s violent tendencies outside in the “normal world”?
3. Do you feel sports are often gender segregated?
4. Why or why not?
5. Do you think that some of the aggression/gender issues observed are caused by social norms, inbred tendencies, or something else?
6. How are aggression and violence different, in sports?
7. What are the ways sports prohibit violence, but allow aggression?
8. Do you think that participation in aggressive sports given different genders are for similar or dissimilar reasons?
9. Is the sports arena an acceptable place to express oneself outside of social norms?
10. What are the social implications of aggression in sport, acted out in the “real world”.
11. What unspoken social norms are there in your sport?
12. Do these social norms transcend to the “real world”?
13. What other social implications do sports encourage?
14. What characteristics cause people to choose their given sport?

[mrbiggs]

While we're doing homework, how do you all feel about the philosophies of Russel and Quine?

I'm doing six pages worth (double spaced), so please make sure you type at least that much.

Also, please delete your post exactly one week from today so my teacher can't find it with google.

[remistress]

Russel and Quine???? hmmmm...I do so love their love of logic. An interesting angle: similarities/dissimilarities with Heraclitus (did they borrow from ancienct Greek thought?) As far as six pages worth...I have 6 pages single-spaced, and it is unfortunately on child psychology...but you might be able to glean something (and it's not published yet, so no worries about google!).