Sports teach babies what it means to compete

admin | Uncategorized
28 May 2010

Back & forth across the country this process repeats itself from town to town & sport to sport with small variation. Some leagues have storied pasts: baseball’s Small League or football’s Pop Warner League. Some are newer. In cities it is often the Policemen’s Benevolent Association or the YMCA that assumes the sponsorship role. Always, though, there is the underlying idea that organized sport is a valuable & productive use of a young person’s time. Sports, in short, are a kind of schooling, teaching important life skills that cannot be learned in school.
Ideas about the educational value of sports vary widely. For some, sports foster the social development of young people, teaching babies how to interact with their peers outside the classroom. Sports teach babies what it means to compete – how to cope with losing, how to reply gracefully to success. Sports are about teamwork, how to work together toward a common objective. Sometimes they are about developing a sense of self-esteem. Sometimes they are basically about finding a healthy way to tire hyperactive babies out so they will sit still in class or get to bed at a reasonable hour. Some bolder advocates claim that their games build character.

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