Sports and culture do sports h
Sports and culture do sports hSports and Culture: Do Sports Help Kids Become Better People?
Many parents' major concern today is that their children "stay ahead of the pack", and keep "an edge" over the competition. For this reason, schools are filled with children in enriched and accelerated programs. Children are being started in competitive sports like swimming, basketball, golf and tennis at a very early age. Being exposed to such competitiveness and pressure, how does this effect a child socially? Does it build character? Of course, there is nothing wrong with wanting children to live up to their potential. However, it is the child's ability to find and utilize that potential and sports can play a large role in this part. This paper will explore the sociology of sports and whether or not they effect the way children communicate, socialize, learn, and in all become better adults.
First off, what is a sport? Though the answer to this question seems obvious, sociologists study sports in a more systematic way and they need a more scientific definition (Coakley 78). It is hard to come up with a concrete and precise definition of sports without making the word confusing to the non-sociologist. There are many kinds of activities that can be considered sports and at the same time not. For example would you include skiing, or biking as sports regardless of the conditions which people engage in them? What is the difference between play and sports? When a person's only goal is for personal satisfactions are they participating in a sport or playing? To better understand what participating in "sport" means sociologists consider three major issues:
1. Do we want our definition of sports to refer to specific types of activities?
2. Do we want our definition of sports to depend on the conditions under which the activities take place?
3. Do we want our definition of sports to depend on the subjective orientations of the participants involved in the activities (Loy, and Sage 315-316)?
These three issues are greatly involved when sociologists are studying the social influences of sports on children.
Only since 1970 have physical educators and sociologists given serious attention to sports as a social phenomena. This is primarily due to the recent increase in the social significance of sports (Smith, Smoll, & Curtis 108). Since the invention of television organized sports have become an extremely popular part of contemporary life. This has caused physical educators and sociologists to become more interested and pay more attention to them. The sociology of sports deserves this attention because sports affect many people's lives. "Sports are connected with major social institutions, cultural ideology, and social relations" (Smith, Smoll, & Curtis 108). Therefore, many sociologists are studying sports and looking to determine whether human behavior, social relations, culture, and ideology influence or are being influenced by sports (Coakley 15-16). "Sociologists are concerned with how behavior, relationships, and group dynamics...
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