macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on Mar 7, 2006 20:47:05 GMT -5
Love it! Can identify with so much of it, ugh, felt like I was back in high school PE class. They really brought the whole awkwardness, humiliation and frustration experienced by the non-athletic student to life.
The anti-boys issue was a tad irritating, because Mallory's problems were also with her sports-crazed teacher and the illogically competitive female students.
Why, why WHY did they have to ruin the whole thing by making Mal kick-ass at archery?!
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Post by spazgirl on Mar 7, 2006 21:13:30 GMT -5
I could relate to Mallory a lot too. I hated being paired up with athletic people and being the "weak" person on my team that gets targeted. Ahh so many memories. I loved some of Mallory's commentary in this book, I never realized she was so funny. The girl's got some zingers. The brother switch thing was so stupid. Only in Stoneybrook I guess. Mallory's theory about how gym class makes boys vile was just so so dumb. And I can't believe she went through all those detentions, hid it from her parents, and didn't even get in trouble. I got a detention or two in middle school and tried to conceal it from my mother.... Trust me I learned my lesson.
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Amalia
Sitting For The Braddocks
Her Original Point of View
Posts: 3,664
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Post by Amalia on Mar 7, 2006 22:27:21 GMT -5
It just seemed a little far-fetched that the teacher seemed glad that the opposing team was pounding the ball into Mallory all because the tactic is a good strategy for winning.
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on Mar 8, 2006 1:46:56 GMT -5
And I can't believe she went through all those detentions, hid it from her parents, and didn't even get in trouble. I got a detention or two in middle school and tried to conceal it from my mother.... Trust me I learned my lesson. I thought Mrs Pike was lovely in this situation. Ordinarily my mother would've gone off about multiple detentions, but considering my mother is also completely unathletic and despised PE class every bit as much as I did, she would be empathetic in that situation. Ugh, not really. Some teachers have no idea. Sports teachers usually have as much contempt for the unathletic as the students.
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,156
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Post by jen on Mar 8, 2006 5:32:27 GMT -5
Mal had some ridiculous theories about boys in this book... Like it was gym in Stoneybrook that made boys irritating, and that all Australian boys are great. Heh.
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Post by aln1982 on Mar 8, 2006 8:45:53 GMT -5
Don't know about Australian boys but boys in America can be especially obnoxious while playing sports. They learn at a young age to chant "girls can't play" and other such insults. When I was 5 and playing co-ed soccer, I slugged a boy for that. That was not typical behavior for me though and I absolutely despised PE, especially because I always got made fun of. My elementary teacher was the worst with making fun of kids (even told some of the other kids that I was such a "crybaby" that I wouldn't make it in middle school and referred to one overweight boy as "earthquake") And all he had us do was play kickball. Luckily, my mom is really supportive, like Mrs. Pike was in this book. I haven't reread this one lately but will have to. I remember enjoying it and being able to really relate to it.
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Post by spazgirl on Mar 8, 2006 9:42:53 GMT -5
This is too true. I had a gym teacher in high school who called all of his beloved, athletic students by their last names. Kids like me were addressed by their first names... usually mumbled in disgust. I got him back by calling him "Mr." while everyone else called him "Coach".
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2006 22:28:50 GMT -5
And I thought my old PE class was bad! I absolutely hated it, but the majority of my class was nice about the fact that I wasn't atheletic. Some of the really sporty ones would even make sure us non atheletic ones got a turn at most things, but even though I was never openly teased, just having to get up and attempt something I knew I could never do was enough to make me hate it. And as for my teacher...he wasn't the nicest teacher around, but he did once spend half a period bowling slow balls at me and trying to teach me how to bat, because he realised the reason I wasn't hitting the balls was because the bowling was too fast for me...this has come in handy once in my life, when we were playing backyard cricket sometime last year. My Dad was really surprised I had the correct batting technique!
And in topic - I haven't read this book for years, but i remember loving it as a kid. I do think the whole archery thing was stupid though, why could the BSC never come across an area they couldn't do SOMETHING well in?
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on Mar 9, 2006 4:51:18 GMT -5
Mal had some ridiculous theories about boys in this book... Like it was gym in Stoneybrook that made boys irritating, and that all Australian boys are great. Heh. d**n, she was definitely barking up the wrong tree with that one! ;D Glad to hear others experiences with school sports was as traumatic as mine. The athletic types will never understand... the classes were absolute torture! I don't know what benefit these mandatory games are. Not fitness, that's for sure - as a student, I just stood there trying not to be noticed and waiting for the class to end, half-heartedly participating if I was harassed enough. It wasn't just the boys either - everyone seemed to take the whole thing way too seriously. As for learning to play in a team, NOTHING turned me off team sports more than those classes.
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Post by aln1982 on Mar 9, 2006 17:18:33 GMT -5
I can totally relate. It made it worse for me that my mom was a great athlete and has a PE teaching degree so everyone (except her and my dad) expected me to be an awesome athlete too. I never did end up playing team sports and hated playing on a team in PE. I would describe myself like Dawn - an "individual" and very independent- anyway.
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on Mar 9, 2006 18:07:40 GMT -5
So you had the Claudia curse, except not with academics but with sports! I was lucky in that both my parents are as unathletic as you can get. Well, lucky in that they were understanding of my sports-hatred, but unlucky in that I inherited the anti-athlete gene.
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Post by aln1982 on Mar 9, 2006 20:19:24 GMT -5
I inherited my dad's anti-athlete. The "Claudia curse" works backwards with acedemics and me though. I take after dad with that too and actually like school (the acedemic aspect - not the socialization, though). (((Maybe that makes me like Janine instead of Claud?))) Mom didn't school but she isn't as eager to learn new stuff as dad and I and not as big of reader. This brings up a point... do any of the BSC members really like school? I know Mallory likes to read and write but does it ever mention if she really likes learning? We all know Claudia hates school but are any of the BSC members who do?
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,156
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Post by jen on Mar 10, 2006 4:21:53 GMT -5
Dunno if they LIKE it, but they all seem to do well in it.
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Amalia
Sitting For The Braddocks
Her Original Point of View
Posts: 3,664
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Post by Amalia on Mar 11, 2006 23:41:09 GMT -5
I just think they pride themselves in being responsible students just like how they are responsible sitters, you know, do all of the work, turn it in on time, etc. But I don't know if they particularly like the material they are learning, so I agree with the above. As for school sports, I was totally awful. I was just lazy. I just didn't think it was such a big deal to try so hard in sports, although I did like the warm-up stretches. Anyways, is anyone here athletic?
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Post by aln1982 on Mar 12, 2006 10:36:51 GMT -5
I'm not sure if I would be considered athletic but I have ridden horses all of my life and love walking. I'm not unatheltic exactly - just not good at team sports or sports that require physical contact or strength because I am small.
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