Title Nine is 35 years old today, and the world of youth sports in the U.S. will never be the same - thankfully. My eldest daughter, the serious jock in the house as I've noted in previous posts, reminded me of the milestone this morning. And of what still needs to be done to fully implement the spirit of the groundbreaking law.To review, Title Nine prohibits federally-funded education programs and activities from discriminating on the basis of sex. Sounds simple, but of course it's not. Sports and a bunch of other programs in public education have always been unfairly focused on males. I can only think that this anachronism is a result of the puritanical fundamentalist view that only males matter and females are, after all, just chattel. It is important to remember that females now represent a majority of the U.S. population, are often wage earners, combat veterans and, well, you know the story. There's just no reason at all for any remnants of the exclusive, male-only fraternity to be holding on to any part of the old model. So happy anniversary Title Nine. Hoo-ya, have another micro-brew.
