From: brian@quake.sylmar.ca.us (Brian K. Yoder)
Newsgroups: misc.education
Subject: Re: Smart kids
Date: 24 Jan 93 11:36:49 GMT
Organization: Quake Public Access

sdcc3.ucsd.edu (hyderabadi) writes:
 
>Yes.. sports is a career for very few people in this world.
 
That's right...VERY few.  I don't think anyone here has used professional
sports as a justification for putting such obscene emphasis on sports in
schools.
 
>But playing
>and participating in sports (especially team sports) teaches kids things
>that are helpful in tougher things down the road. When you play in team
>sports you win some and lose some. When you lose, its not always your fault,
>& when you win, its not always because of you.
 
Let me be clear about this...it teaches that you are not responsible for the
outcomes of your choices and efforts no matter the outcome or the effort?
Is that a proper lesson to teach kids?  Why couldn't they learn the same
lesson by working for a grade in a class?  Perhaps they would only learn
this supposedly valuable lesson if the teacher were unfair and arbitrary?
 
>It teaches you to persist,
>win as a team,
 
Indeed, it wouldn't do to encourage individualism and a belief in the value
of individual effort and individual reward, would it?
 
>and accept the fact you don't always get what you want
>(i.e. win).
 
Don't you think that is a lesson kids learn when they are 6 weeks old?
Why can't these oh-so-important lessons be learned just as well by
classroom efforts?
 
>It teaches you how to handle situations when you don't
>get what you want (lose). It teaches you how to lose.
 
Now, there's a wonderful lesson for kids.  Worse yet, the fact that
teachers (and others) demonstrate that they think "learning to be a loser"
is so important offers an implicit lesson itself, doesn't it?
 
When do kids learn the lesson of winning in an intellectual arena?  For many
kids, that's an alien concept.
 
>I still remember the days when I
>played ball in the streets as a kid. At first, I used to be devastated
>when I (and my team) lost. But then, you learn, you get another shot the
>next day. You have to take the disappointments and as they come.
 
Why is that such a valuable lesson? Any why does focusing such frantic
attention on sports appropriate in such cases?  Do you defend the positions
of sports like football and basketball in school? (That being something akin
to a religion, rather than a recreational activity.)
 
>Sports is a 'meaningless' activity that prepares you for the real world.
 
I know a lot of kids who were never involved in sports and they turned out
just fine.  MOST of the kids who were heavily involved in sports in my school
turned out to be bitter losers (since they squandered their youth tossing balls
rather than learning academic material).  Personally, I was involved in
sports in school for many years, but I didn't participate because it was
"good for me", but because it was fun...entertainment...recreation.  When
I got into high school, the focus changed into an ugly focus on winning
and mind-numbing practice, so I quit.
 
Tell me this, why do you think football is any better than other competitive
things like debate teams and spelling bees?
 
--Brian