Sports
I'm about to do something risky.
I'm going to make an assertion without any empirical research to back me up. And I want you to give me your honest opinions as comments to this post.
I think sports should be as necessary a component of a child's education as english, math or science. And I'm talking about sports, not just phys ed.
Properly coached, I think there are lessons kids can take away from sports and apply to life that they won't get from the more traditional subjects.
I'm saying this as someone who loathed gym in school. But I loathed it for three reasons: the cockiness and elitism of the natural athletes in class, the focus on team sports and the winning is everything mentality of the majority of my classmates.
Basically, I didn't like it because I dislike playing team sports and because sportsmanship wasn't paramount. In fact, gym class spoiled me on sports altogether for a very long time.
That's not to say that I was never exposed to sportsmanship. My dad was an athlete all through school (hockey, baseball, track and field, etc.). So I played hockey when I was little, but left after a year or two. But even though I left it, my dad was still who he was, so sportsmanship was still a part of my upbringing. Later, I also could have gotten into martial sport through martial arts, but I was more interested in learning to 'fight' than on competing in tournaments (there are differences).
I guess it's sportsmanship I'm thinking about. You know what I'm talking about. How you play is more important than whether you win or lose. Show respect for your opponents and yourself. Give maximum effort even if you're tired, losing or hurting.
That's my opinion. What's yours?
I'm going to make an assertion without any empirical research to back me up. And I want you to give me your honest opinions as comments to this post.
I think sports should be as necessary a component of a child's education as english, math or science. And I'm talking about sports, not just phys ed.
Properly coached, I think there are lessons kids can take away from sports and apply to life that they won't get from the more traditional subjects.
I'm saying this as someone who loathed gym in school. But I loathed it for three reasons: the cockiness and elitism of the natural athletes in class, the focus on team sports and the winning is everything mentality of the majority of my classmates.
Basically, I didn't like it because I dislike playing team sports and because sportsmanship wasn't paramount. In fact, gym class spoiled me on sports altogether for a very long time.
That's not to say that I was never exposed to sportsmanship. My dad was an athlete all through school (hockey, baseball, track and field, etc.). So I played hockey when I was little, but left after a year or two. But even though I left it, my dad was still who he was, so sportsmanship was still a part of my upbringing. Later, I also could have gotten into martial sport through martial arts, but I was more interested in learning to 'fight' than on competing in tournaments (there are differences).
I guess it's sportsmanship I'm thinking about. You know what I'm talking about. How you play is more important than whether you win or lose. Show respect for your opponents and yourself. Give maximum effort even if you're tired, losing or hurting.
That's my opinion. What's yours?
"I'm going to make an assertion without any empirical research to back me up."
That's not risky. That's normal.
I mostly agree - I think you should be able to pick from a range or sports, mind you, and some of my favorites (badminton, for example) might offer slightly different lessons, but still valuable ones.
The important part, to me, is that you somehow make sure all the kids are _enjoying_ some form of sport - these days, getting people hooked on physical activity as soon as possible is kind of important.
And yes, gym class was teh suck. And we had a good teacher who mitigated most of it, even.
Posted by
Ian |
Friday, August 20, 2004 11:26:00 a.m.