Are Professional Athletes Good Role Models?

On September 20, 2016 in my American Sport in the 21st Century class we discussed if professional athletes are suitable role models for children to look up to and learn from. In class we compiled a list of characteristics or traits a good role model should possess some included were:

•  Honesty
• Commitment
• Determination
• High Morel Values

Of course there are two sides of the spectrum when looking at athletes as role models some athletes are shining examples of what a role model should be while others can be considered as a bad influence for a child. We said in class that most if not all kids growing up playing sports want to make it to the big time and become superstars, but with the rarity of that actually happening kids still look up to athletes and aspire to be like them. 

In the Travis Armideo article Do Professional Athletes Actually make Good Role Models? Armideo covers much of what was touched on in class such as the hard work and determination of athletes to inspire young kids to reach above and beyond their potential. With the dawn of social media everything an athlete does is examined and picked apart by the media, an example covered in the article is that the NFL is leaning away from certain draft picks because of their off-the-field behavior including drug and alcohol abuse, homicide charges, and character issues. But Armideo brings up a valid point in that why should we expect these athletes to be model citizens in such violent sports that basically thrust overly aggressive and eccentric players into the spotlight? Parents seem to expect too much from athletes, they are the best at what they do like an elite businessman or surgeon at their respective careers except the latter two aren't forced into the spotlight. Charles Barkley was featured in a now famous Nike commercial where he states " I am not a role model" which you can watch below.

For the full Travis Armideo article click here

The famous Charles Barkley "I am Not a Role Model" Nike commercial 

When released the commercial caused an outrage but to some people he has a point; athletes get paid millions of dollars to play a sport that they are the best in the world at and get put in the spotlight for everyone to see, parents and local community members should be a child's role model. To others as a famous athlete with the possibility to impact thousands of kids' lives it should be an obligation to be a proper role model. 

Not all athletes think the same way as Charles Barkley though, to s

ome giving back and being a role model is something that they embrace as they do consider it as part of their job. Just a few examples I want to share is John Cena, even though pro wrestling is fake and barely considered a sport, John Cena is an athlete nonetheless and is a major part of the Make a Wish Foundation and the first celebrity to grant 500 wishes. Another is P.K. Subban of the Nashville Predators, who constantly visits volunteers, organizes fundraisers, and donates to the  Montreal Children's Hospital, so much so that they named an atrium in the hospital after him. With all of the community outreach many players have started or been a part of, some can be considered role models and should be focused in the media more while the others who can lead to negative influences should be talked about, not less, as some of their poor actions decisions should be known, but just not the main focus and constantly covering the news.






What do you think of athletes as role models? Should being a good role model be part of the job, or should parents be the main role model in a child's life?

Issues of Interscholastic Sports

On September 29, 2016 in my American Sport in the 21st Century class we examined the benefits and issues of high school sports. Interscholastic sports are a very important and popular part of high schools all across the country and Friday nights during the fall have become synonymous with high school football games. But many believe that the current issues outweigh the benefits for students.

Below is a list from class of the benefits and the issues parents, teachers, and students alike have formed:
Benefits:

• Interscholastic sports involves students in school activities
• Playing a high school sport can build self-esteem
• Promotes support from the community
• Maintains fitness & lifetime participation

Issues:

• Athletes may get too distracted from their academics and solely focus on their sport
• Injuries
• Many schools cut out other programs to keep the athletic department running
• Athletes may be under too much pressure to win 

While there seems to be a divide on the importance of the athletic department and academics in high schools, most parents, teachers, and coaches agree that having both is important in a students life. Bryan Toporek wrote in Education Week about schools weighing the value of the football program versus arts programs and whether or not to cut the arts. In the article John R Gerdy,founder of the nonprofit educational organization Music for Everyone, thinks that, although both share several benefits like student engagement, development of positive character traits, and teamwork, arts programs provide more educational value than football for schools. Gerdy states:

"Consider music's pluses: the capacity to be a lifelong participatory-learning activity (football, for all but a select few, ends after high school); the fact that music is a universal language (football is uniquely American); its gender inclusiveness; a far lower cost-per-student ratio; the potential it offers as an essential platform for international and interdisciplinary studies; and its effectiveness in strengthening the brain's neural activity and development (versus the possibility, if not the likelihood, of sustaining brain trauma). Finally, the effectiveness of sports as an educational tool has been steadily diminishing as athletic programs have become more about the end result--winning--and less about the process (learning)"

This relates directly to one of the issues we discussed in class regrading the cutting of other high school programs to fund the sports teams, some see it as a waste of resources while others may even lose their jobs like a music or arts teacher. For the full article click here

The video above shares some of the many benefits high school sports can offer students 

It may depend on the location of the schools to determine the popularity of sports programs; a high school football team is probably going to be more popular in areas in the Midwest than in an area like the West Coast where alternative sports thrive and arts programs could be more popular. Some high schools across the country have already begun to cut their athletics for arts and vice versa. What is your opinion on interscholastic sports? Are they worth investing in over other school programs? Did you or other classmates find a happy balance between academics, sports, and the arts?

How Sport Contributes to Social Values and Behavior

On September 8, 2016 in my American Sport in the 21st Century class we discussed how important sport is in America, and the same can be said all around the globe, and how sports can impact and mirror society. We defined values as anything that is desirable or a reflection of morals. Watching and participating in sport can tell us a great deal about who we are and what we value. Values help to define who we are as individuals and helps to guide our behavior; we begin to learn about and form our own values at a young age from our social base which can include our family, our peers, and our teachers or coaches. Experience and travel also guides and shapes our values as well as the internalization through socialization, which I discussed in a prior blog. Some of the societal values in America we touched in class included:

• Achievement & Success
• Materialism
• Progress
• Equality
• Nationalism
• Individualism

At a young age developing clear values can be difficult depending on the upbringing of a child, but participating in sport early can form the foundations of good values. According to Steve Silverman from Livestrong.com some values learned from children participating in sport are:

• Work Ethic- holding practice sessions multiple times before a game to develop skills needed to play the game well, the harder a child works the better they will become. Also can build character.
• Overcoming Adversity- the ability to grow as a player after a particularly bad game and keeps playing and attempting to get better. Overcoming adversity during a bad stretch of games shows that life isn't always easy and that it is better to conquer problems than to avoid them.

Read the full article here.

During the class we also talked about the benefits and drawbacks on the behavior some values can lead to for an athlete at a young age. 

• Positive Character Building traits from playing sport:
• Motivation
• Leadership
• Time Management
• Respect
• Negative Character Building traits:
• Lowers self-esteem when the athlete is not good and on the bench.
• Better athletes can get spoiled.
• Better athletes may also get a "free pass" if they do something wrong.
• Positives of Nationalism:
• Sport being used to unite a country
• Inspires devotion to a country
• Negative Nationalism: 
• Can reinforce national conflicts
• Stereotyping other cultures, basing theirs on your own 

Sports can also be used as a vehicle for social change such as world peace. John Ourand wrote earlier this year in the Sports Business Journal about Pope Francis plans to use sports as a means of putting aside different values and bringing people together. With the help of  the Aspire Marketing Group, the Vatican was host to a conference which included over one hundred of the world's sport, government, and religious leaders, such an event has never been attempted before. The Pope helped to organize the event because he believes that the popularity and power of sport can bring social change and unite people of all faiths, races, and nationalities together in peace. 

For the full article go here.

Role of Socialization in American Youth Sport

On September 20, 2016, in my American Sport in the 21st Century class, we discussed some of the different ways youth sports has on socialization and how much of an impact on the culture in the United States is influenced by sport. In my class we defined socialization as the process by which we learn the culture of society; participation and watching sports are some of the main ways kids really begin to develop into who they will become. Sport plays a major part in the lives of most of the country, and for a lot of us participating on a little league baseball team or Pop Warner football it is where we first begin to form social values and it starts to make us into who we are and interact with other people.

In the article Sports and Socialization it states that although it varies by society, for most people in the western world, participation in youth sports is considered to produce positive socialization effects in children, some of which were discussed in class on September 20th, such as:

• Increased academic achievement
• Decreased rates of delinquency and deviance
• Positive moral development
• Creation of friendships 
• Development of social identity

While participating in organized sport at a young age generates mostly positive attributes there will always be negative aspects such as:

• Status in school and the formation of cliques leading to bullying
• Negative experiences in youth sports could make kids lose all interest
• Not getting enough physical activity once out of youth sport
• Risk of injury 
• Stress and anxiety to perform from parents or coaches

Click Sports and Socialization for the full article

The first half of this video showcases a young athlete's journey from youth to interscholastic sport and the positives she gained from of it.

The article, Youth Sports, goes on to describe some noticeable trends in youth sports since the 1950's like the increase in youth sport opportunities and some of the more specialized sports on the rise. Youth sports have become more institutionalized and less spontaneous like they once were. Commercial training centers have been on the rise for help in skill development and systematic training, while at these centers youth still can engage with other kids but there are no far reaching obligations. There also is a larger number of initiatives for youth at risk to join a team and participate with other kids. For the full article click on this link

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