Body 1: Sports teaches young people to be overly aggressive.
At the age of 10 young boys are putting on football pads go onto the field and tackle each other.
As they get older their captains and coaches use vocabulary such as " go out there and kill them" or "slaughter them"!
This can be seen in a Separate Piece.
The school they go to uses sports to prepare the students for war.
Loosing is not acceptable to them because that is signifying that they wont survive the war.
They create a game that involves tackling, kicking, and other aggressive acts and it is supported by the teachers.
Body 2: Sports cause an uneven distribution of popularity leading to a hierarchy in the school.
Athletes (especially of football or soccer) gain popularity quickly after entering high school.
People start following his trends and his beliefs.
This allows him to get away with lots of acts that normally would not be permitted.
It is this that leads to bullying.
This can be seen in Speak where the popular athlete gets away with raping a girl.
He gets away with it cause the girl does not believe that anyone will believe her is she tells people.
They get away with it cause they are popular and everyone think that what they do is the right thing to do.
Body 3: Sports changes the focus of school away from education towards athletic success.
Athletes are popular and well liked.
They can get scholarships if they are successful.
Money and Popularity entices more students to join sports.
This shifts the focus from learning towards gaining that popularity and money by joining sports teams.
This can be seen in A Separate Peace where Finny is held up as the leader of his grade and his group because he is good at sports.
The teachers let him get away with skipping different parts of school because he is the ideal boy for the war.
This leads to more boys trying to be like him.
While sports does have its benefits to society and to children, however it can be quite harmful as well. Sports leads to over aggressive children, a hierarchy in the schools, and a shift from education to sports.
This topic is a good one and is closely related to my topic of Violence among Teens. Bullying is big part of school days for most adolescents. Jocks do have a tendency to do a good share of the verbal and physical abuse that takes place in schools. However, I see a great deal of violence in the underprivileged communities where sometimes the jocks are victims.
ReplyDeleteAll in all, I agree that sports portray a dog eat dog culture that radiates into all areas of the athlete’s life. These students do seem to gain a sense of superiority that affords them the opportunity to pick on other students. You are right their behavior is always accepted among teens as well as adults. Victims usually know that nothing will happen if the bullying is reported so they just accept it and move on.
The sad part is that nobody seems to care what happens to the oppressed student. Nothing is done until it is too late and the kid goes off and kills a bunch students and teachers. The verbal abuse is one thing, but in our era it seems like the bullying has gone to another level.