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In our church parenting classes, we have been reading two books, "The Wonder of Boys", and "The Wonder of Girls", by Michael Gurian. His theory is that boys' and girls' behaviour and attitudes are going to be somewhat different, since the brains are hardwired differently; and all the recent societal pressure to make everyone the same is doomed to failure. It's been interesting and perhaps when this board gets really boring in August I might expound here a little on how this theory is helping me be a better official.
However, for today, I want to share a little incident that happened this weekend that illustrates the author's perspective.
Girls' varsity, very competitive tourney, not always the best basketball, but fast and intense. A-team player (16-, or 17- year old girl) approaches me right after a throw-in and says, "Can she have her foot on the black line?" I assumed she was talking about the throw-in, and said, "Yes, on an inbound." But the ball was in play so I didnt get a very adequate explanation in. At the next free-throw, A1 (who had asked the question) stepped into the bottom spot on the lane. As others were lining up, I stepped over and said, "On the in-bound out-of-bound question, think of it this way." She said, "Oh, when I asked about the black line, I meant this one..." and she pointed to the low block. "See?" she asked and looked at the block opposite her on the lane. B1 (who was across and next up from the bottom) had her toes right at the block and her heel up and hanging over -- you all know how they do that. I know this is technically illegal, but I have never seen it called, or called it myself. I said, "Yes, that's legal." A1 said, "Oh, well I don't know why she does it anyway." I said, "I don't either, but lots of girls do." Now B1 looks up and says, "Oh, I do it because it gets me closer to the basket." B2, next to A1 says, "Yeah, it really helps a lot." A2, on the lowest spot, opposite A1, says, "But you're not doing it!" B2 says, "I don't do my stance until the second shot." A1 says, "I'm still closer than you, though..."
and then this discussion ensued, between both teams, about the various stances and their advantages and disadvantages, and it continued right up until the second shot was in the air.
Boys would NEVER do that!
[Edited by rainmaker on Jun 25th, 2002 at 10:50 AM]
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