Students doing their Sports Psychology classroom presentation on EXTREME SPORTS decided to involve their classmates in a little exercise outside of St. Ed's yesterday afternoon at the beginning of class. We have been discussing the psychological reasons why some people are so willing to put themselves (and in some cases their lives) at risk by participating in activities that others would NEVER attempt. The five students who set this all up obtained a SLACK LINE from a friend and strung this line up between two trees outside in hopes that they could get some of their classmates to "attempt" to walk this slack line. Some did but most didn't which then led to a GREAT conversation in class. Some who didn't are athletes who knew that if they injured themselves, their coaches would "kill them" as they put it. Others just simply said they were scared. It was a great discussion because some of the students are clearly fascinated by extreme sports. They then led a discussion about why WE seem so fascinated with watching extreme sports - is it adrenaline, a death wish, a life wish that pushes people? They showed a video of a young female surfer who lost her arm to a shark at age 16 but returned to surfing three weeks later and another video of Aron Ralston, the young man who had to literally saw his own arm off to escape from a climbing accident. I was very proud of the students as they challenged themselves and each other to present a great class. We will continue that discussion tomorrow when we look at why Red Bull sponsors so many of these extreme sports and ask the question: how far is too far??????
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