Revision Essays

Barton County Community College

21th November 2014

Summary

In Jessica Statsky’s article “Children Need to Play, Not Compete”, she argues that children between the age of six and twelve are not ready to be involved in organized and competitive sports such as Little League Baseball and Pewee Football which are very common and considered a basic part of childhood. The article argues that the standard with which the parents and coaches normally emphasize these sports to be played are adult standards and are developmentally inappropriate both physically and psychologically to children of such a young age. These sports eliminate many children from participating and the article considers them counterproductive for just producing fans and players of the sport for the future. It is also pointed out that due to the sports’ emphasis on winning, personal fantasies of coaches and parents are placed ahead of the children’s recreational needs and welfare.

The article sites harmful physical effects of such competitive sports are that they drive children into physical actions that are harmful to their growing bodies. It is said that a twelve year old may get abnormal strain on developing arm and shoulder muscles while trying to throw a curve ball especially in contact sports such as football. Even if the child does not get injured, it is stipulated in the article that the fear of the eventuality drives the fun out of the game and only adds more anxiety. Many children have taken desperate steps to avoid playing on the pitch because of this fear. Some common ‘hideout’ tendencies include feigning sickness or injury to delay the time spent on the bench by the player (Thomas, 2008).

These sports are said to pose also psychological dangers for children. It is said that the sport under the coaches’ instruction becomes more job like to the children. While the goals of children in sports should be having fun and socializing, the current primary goal is winning. Though competition is important especially when the child goes older and has to participate in competitive selection and examinations, in their young childhood lives too much competition is said to affect their development. Children may become depressed when they sense that their worth is based on their ability to meet their coaches’ and parents’ expectations in sports (Koppet, 1981).

These and other harmful factors were brought out and seen to justify the assumed fact that organized and competitive sports should not be included in a young child’s development. The article points out that very few children are likely to benefit from this program and authorities governing the care of children should come up with better designed sport programs that suits younger children.

Response

I strongly disagree with Jessica Statsky’s article “Children Need to Play, Not Compete”. This is because the article is against activities in a young child’s life that are essential for every child to grow healthily in all fields. The article generalizes some characteristics observed in certain types of children and therefore bias against the advantages of competitive sports.

The first concept I am against for in the article is that competitive sports should only be for adults and children are not mature enough to be competitive. This is not the case as a majority of children as I were myself enjoyed sports such as football because of winning. It is hard to imagine how boring the sport would have been if there was no competing involved. The same case applies to swimming where there would be no reason to train hard since swimming as a sport would be equated with swimming as a leisure activity.

Despite the numerous negative effects of competition to a child mentioned in the article, I believe the advantages should not be overlooked as they are just as important. For instance, one advantage of competition except than being fun is that it sharpens the competitor’s sill for the sport. Some of the greatest sportsmen and sportswomen today in various competitive sports fields started participating in the sport while still a child. It was through competition that the interest for the desired sport was picked and the need to sharpen skills at the sport in order to win the competition.

Another benefit that comes with competition is that talented children can be noted at a young age and drilling necessary skills to better their talent can start at that young age. If it were not for the competitive nature of the sports, it would have difficult to determine who was best at the sport and could make a career out of the sport. This competition is not only important in sports but other areas that a child is likely to be talented in so that the talented child can be identified as young as possible. Each and every child is particularly gifted in a certain field and competition is one of the ways where the field can be identified. Although it is possible due to development constraints especially in physical development, the maximum potential for a child in a sport would not be realized yet but these occurrences are very few compared to the children whose boy structure already favors the sport they participate or would wish to participate in.

In conclusion, the arguments posed by the article “Children Need to Pay, Not Compete” are true in many ways. The dangers and risks to the child are significant and need to be addressed. However, the strategic actions proposed by the article of wiping out these competitive sports are too drastic and exaggerated. The advantages of competitive sports are too valuable to lose without consideration.

References

Thomas, Tutko (2008). Winning is Everything and Other American Myths.

Koppet, Leonard (1981). Sports Illusion, Sports Reality. Houghton.