On August 20 I wrote a blog and I wrote a long comment back to “anonymous” but my comment got lost and never appeared on the site. So I’m creating a new blog to answer the question poised. “Are sports becoming so important in our lives that it is affecting student’s ability to get an education?” I believe that sports of all kinds from fantasy players playing for fantasy teams, obsession with real sports teams, parents over eager to make their kids athletes, winning at all costs, grade school, high school and colleges putting too much emphasis on sports have somewhat lessened students interest in pursuing careers in technology, medicine and engineering.
Another question presented “is Bradley putting too much emphasis on sports and physical activities with their $100 million facility planned for sports, physical education and recreation?”
On 10/14/05 I created a blog “How Sports Helped Mold My Life”. I suggest you read this blog and it will answer most of the question of the importance or over emphasis on sports of all kinds. Some sports participation is good for all people of all genders and ages. Over emphasis on sports is the same as overdoing any good thing such as eating, spending, drinking, driving in a reckless manner, sex, recreating and working. In my case, while my teachers told me I had the ability to excel in math, I was not interested. In fact I wasn’t much interested in anything except getting off the farm. My interest in wanting to play sports turned my life into a reasonable success. It helped prevent me from smoking, drinking and running with the wrong crowds and got me to bed at a reasonable hour. When I was in the Air Force and later college, I could often be found in the gym rather than in the local bars.(or the library) Sports participation also made me a competitor who preferred to win yet learned to lose. Sports experiences helped me become a good salesperson, a good follower, a good teacher and coach and a reasonably successful business man and a political leader.
I believe Bradley is planning to turn out an educationally well rounded, physically fit competitive graduate and that formula has proven to be good for the country. I believe we from the United States have proven to be better leaders, better followers, and better thinkers equipped to succeed when challenged by our adversaries. I attribute much of this to sports and any extra curricular activity that combines training, discipline, a work ethic, the challenge to be an individual and think on your own and still cooperate and an ability to be hard but fair losers and gracious winners. Passive viewing and passive participation leads to less physically fit men and women; men and women who we will always need to keep this country safe from those who care little for sports but plan constantly to do us great bodily harm. They listen to false prophets and these people can not be reasoned with by dialogue and acts of truth and love.
How and why we are falling behind in such skills as math, medicine and engineering is best described by Dr. Jerry Becker from SIU. You can get on Dr. Becker’s email list at jbecker@siu.edu I’m sure there are many more experts in the field and I know I have some extensive files on how to win the hearts and souls of kids who have the interest and abilities to pursue these hard topics. However, sports have and will always have a positive impact on a great many lives of kids and adults, some like me, for an entire lifetime.
An article by Tim Wendell of USA Today dated 1/23/06, is titled “Too Hard on Kids? Hardly”. Wendell says “Good coaching, and parenting (good), can keep a sassy child from becoming a reckless adult. If I get some dialogue on this blog I’ll go into more details of Wendell’s article.
Moderation of all things good is easy to say but difficult to achieve. Maybe we can get some comments on the benefits and negatives of active physical participation in one’s life at any age.
Since I am on the campaign trail but still try to do all the other things I’m involved in, I may be writing less blogs until after Nov. 7 election. I have only so much energy as I still compete in tennis and walk door to door and I do not want to be stressed out if I am to do a good job on my other obligations. For those of you just starting to read me, I suggest digging into my archives.
Thanks again.
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