Mary Spencer stands at the end of a dark tunnel. Thunderous shouts from the crowd echo in her ears. She closes her eyes, letting the noise pour over her. Her fingers tingle with anticipation inside her boxing gloves.
The crowd in London, England is going wild, and for good reason. Today is the opening round of the women’s Olympic boxing competition – the first time the event is being held at the Olympic Games.
Respect has been a long time coming both for Mary and her sport.
Mary is from the Cape Croker First Nations Reserve and grew up in Windsor, Ont.
Her family didn’t have a lot of money and she wasn’t always the best-behaved kid. She even surprisingly failed gym class.
However, her life changed the first time she stepped into a boxing ring.
“I saw what I was capable of doing,” said Mary. “It takes an incredible amount of hard work to make it as an Olympian, but it is worth the sacrifices.”
Mary knows that as she steps into the ring to battle for Olympic gold, she is showing the kids back home what they can do.
“I do a lot of work with kids at Cape Croker and in Windsor. I need to win because I want them to know that a regular person like me — and them — can do something special with confidence and hard work.”
Through hard work, she has earned her way to the top of the women’s boxing world. In fact, Mary has been at the top of her sport for years. She has won three world titles and more than 100 bouts, but during that time boxing was the lone sport in the Olympic Games that remained only for males.
“I’d hoped the International Olympic Committee would add women’s boxing in 2008,” said Mary. “They didn’t and that was very hard to take. I had to regroup, focus on having a good attitude and hope for 2012.”
Not being in the Olympic Games robbed the sport of women’s boxing from any chance of gaining a high profile. There are sports fans who don’t take her sport seriously. Maybe they don’t like the idea of women fighting with their fists.
“It was hard to gain respect when women’s boxing wasn’t an Olympic sport. A lot of people still don’t realize how competitive it is.”
That finally changed two years ago when the International Olympic Committee announced that female boxers would compete in the London 2012 Games.
But the news was bittersweet. Only three weight categories would be included, compared to the ten categories for men. To make matters worse, Mary’s weight category wasn’t one of the three. She had to move up a weight category and box bigger women. She stayed positive.
She has trained for this moment with an intensity that is admired by her fellow athletes. This comes from her desire to win and her respect for her opponents.
This sport is not easy and can be challenging as it attracts fearless athletes. Boxers start off each bout by tapping gloves; a gesture of respect and a way to say good job and good luck.
“There is a lot of respect among boxers because we all know that it takes a lot of courage to get in there in the first place,” says Mary. “The respect we have for each other is often evident after a competition. In my 10 years of competing and going to many tournaments, I have never witnessed a conflict or a fight between boxers outside of the ring.”
The noise of the crowd continues to rise as Mary makes her way into the ring. She spies her opponent. Now she has to get ready to compete at the highest level.
Millions of people will be watching. This is the moment that she has spent years dreaming about, and Mary knows she’s ready. After years of waiting and fighting for respect it is about to arrive, win or lose.
Connecting: Respect Placemats
Teacher tells the class that they are going to do some thinking about respect. Move students into six small groups. Write one of the following questions on six large sheets of paper (flip chart or Bristol board):
- What does respect mean?
- What does respect look like when people have differing opinions?
- When is it difficult to respect other people and why?
- Can respect be taught or does it need to be earned?
- Why does self-respect matter?
- How can you show self-respect?
Students have three minutes with their group to write ideas for their question. On the teacher’s signal, pass all the sheets clockwise so that each group has a new question to respond to. Continue this until all groups have had a chance to work on each placemat.
Note; A carousel activity, where the students move to a posted sheet on the wall, encourages more physical activity. Students are timed to quickly walk to the next ‘placemat”.
With their final placemat, the group reads the question aloud and chooses one strong idea to share with the class.
Processing: An Interview
Ask the students to read the story silently on their own. In groups of two, students role play an interview with Mary Spencer. The interviewer asks the questions from the Connecting section, (placemat activity) and Mary Spencer answers using ideas from the text. Students practice with their partners and present to the class.
Transforming: A Debate About Respect
Hold a debate in class around the theme of respect, giving students the chance to demonstrate respect for others during the discussion. A debate question could be “Respect is something that you have to earn; it shouldn’t be given to just anyone,” or “All conflict can be resolved with respectful behaviour.” Tell students to move to the left of the room upon hearing the statement if they strongly agree, to move to the right side of the room if they strongly disagree. If they are undecided they need to stand somewhere in the room between the two extremes. After taking a stand on the continuum, students are invited to speak their opinion, and others are invited to respond to the opinion or present a differing opinion.
Ground Rules
- The debating process begins by forming teams of students ( 2 to 4 students recommended). There are specific rounds that alternate between affirmative and negative speakers.
- Students must be courteous throughout the debate. Debaters must address the judge (teacher or invited adult), the opponents and the class or audience. They may not interrupt a speaker at any time.
- The teacher writes the topic on the board for all to see and refer to. These can highlight topics to resolutions.
- Students must bring arguments and facts/evidence with them to the debate and must refer to them throughout. They must site the reliable sources.
- The debating “team of students” is provided with the topic, a set time and a proposed format.
- The argument/ speech is timed and a warning sign is given when the speaker has minimal time remaining.
- The judge keeps a running account of each team’s argument / debate/presentation and awards points accordingly. The judge announces the winning team.Students return to their seats to complete the Personal Reflection template.