“Okay, captains, it’s time to choose team members!”

“Come on, come on—pick me first, pick me first. Rats, they’re picking those big guys. Oh, no, they’re picking the people they know by name—and they don’t know my name! Wait, she told them her name, and she was picked—I’ll just tell them my name. Too late—I was picked last anyway.”

Sound like a child being picked for a team on the playground? Guess again—it was me, taking part in an activity at the beginning of a recent CASPER presentation by physical education graduate student Angie Ladd. I was there with a group of parents interested in learning more about CASPER. Cathrine Himberg had asked for two volunteers to be captains and choose teams. Although we were all adults and knew the activity didn’t mean anything, we were still affected by it. A woman who was chosen first said she had never been chosen first and it felt good; I said I didn’t like being chosen last. One of the captains said he was worried about how he made people feel.

“When I was growing up, I was oftentimes the one standing there as the captain, picking teams, and not giving a second thought to what it may be doing to these poor kids who are being chosen last,” says “captain” Paul Tovey, a parent of two elementary schoolchildren. “I think anything you can do to raise awareness and to get people excited about participating in physical activity would be a really positive thing.”

Another parent who is also an elementary school teacher saw the potential of organizations like CASPER. “CASPER is an excellent resource for someone who is frustrated, who needs some more information, some support, some connections with other people who might be frustrated,” observes Barbara Potter-Jones. “That’s how I see CASPER’s role—you can get connected with other people to see how they solved a similar problem because this is probably happening all over the place. And here you have a platform to communicate with other people.”

CASPER recommends some ways that parents can help as individuals, including asking their children about P.E. and observing a P.E. class. If harmful practices are used, they recommend talking to the teacher and the principal. If harmful practices are not used, nominate the teacher or the school for a recognition award.

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