Playing Silly Games
Leaving aside the point that there would be blood up the walls if a white Republican, rather than Democrat of mixed race had said what Obama did about young black men's chances of a job outside of playing basketball, what Obama did say needed to be said: and it is not just a message for young black people.
I recall scores of young white men from my own generation at the age of 15 and 16, sometimes only weeks away from leaving school, when asked what they wanted to do, replied "Footballer" (rather, they grunted "F'Baw-er"). Never mind they weren't good enough to play for the school team, had never had a trial for a pro team, that they smoked more than a pack a day and got out of breath running for a bus -all they had ever wanted to be was "F'Baw-er".
Their fathers encouraged the conceit, and sports teachers had not helped by behaving as if playing games with balls was something important. They wanted to be either a "F'Baw-er" or nothing, and nothing is what most of them have become.
Every child with ability should be encouraged, but there is a wickedness in encouraging children from poor neighbourhoods to think that the easy money of professional sport is a way out of poverty for any but a tiny, tiny handful. But this is what many schools do by encouraging young people to devote precious class time playing pointless games. Often there is a Principal or sports coach whose passion for football, basketball, rugby, whatever, is so overweening, that young people's futures are allowed to suffer. Obama also mentioned rapping as a similar delusion among young people, and the obsession with the wealth and lifestyles of celebrities has a role in the something-for-nothing beliefs of a lot of young people. And when the football team doesn't sign them, or the recording contract doesn't materialise... there are always drugs - with a much more realistic proposition for getting rich quick.
A few home truths about sport and young people.
1) It does NOT prepare you for the world of work. Sure people work in teams, but as INDIVIDUALS, only in the world of the military do people need the mindless group mentality promoted by team sports.
2) The kinds of pointless competitiveness sport encourages in young men is damaging to society. Ever been cut up on the freeway by someone who just couldn't bear to be the person in the car behind? The roots of this aggression are in education systems which promote that achievement is getting in front of someone else - not overcoming one's inner limitations. Anton Lavey rightly called sport a 'justification for contentiousness'
3) considering professional athlete's tendencies to make headlines for taking drugs, domestic violence and sexual assault, are these overpaid, intellectual underachievers really the kind of role models that schools should be encouraging your children to emulate?
While children don't seem to walk or cycle to school anymore, there is a strong case to make them more active.
However, to prepare them for adult life, the mental toughness required for self-directed weight training and Calisthenics are much more likely to give them the skills they need to push themselves to their limits alone in the world of work than kicking a ball about with their friends.
I recall scores of young white men from my own generation at the age of 15 and 16, sometimes only weeks away from leaving school, when asked what they wanted to do, replied "Footballer" (rather, they grunted "F'Baw-er"). Never mind they weren't good enough to play for the school team, had never had a trial for a pro team, that they smoked more than a pack a day and got out of breath running for a bus -all they had ever wanted to be was "F'Baw-er".
Their fathers encouraged the conceit, and sports teachers had not helped by behaving as if playing games with balls was something important. They wanted to be either a "F'Baw-er" or nothing, and nothing is what most of them have become.
Every child with ability should be encouraged, but there is a wickedness in encouraging children from poor neighbourhoods to think that the easy money of professional sport is a way out of poverty for any but a tiny, tiny handful. But this is what many schools do by encouraging young people to devote precious class time playing pointless games. Often there is a Principal or sports coach whose passion for football, basketball, rugby, whatever, is so overweening, that young people's futures are allowed to suffer. Obama also mentioned rapping as a similar delusion among young people, and the obsession with the wealth and lifestyles of celebrities has a role in the something-for-nothing beliefs of a lot of young people. And when the football team doesn't sign them, or the recording contract doesn't materialise... there are always drugs - with a much more realistic proposition for getting rich quick.
A few home truths about sport and young people.
1) It does NOT prepare you for the world of work. Sure people work in teams, but as INDIVIDUALS, only in the world of the military do people need the mindless group mentality promoted by team sports.
2) The kinds of pointless competitiveness sport encourages in young men is damaging to society. Ever been cut up on the freeway by someone who just couldn't bear to be the person in the car behind? The roots of this aggression are in education systems which promote that achievement is getting in front of someone else - not overcoming one's inner limitations. Anton Lavey rightly called sport a 'justification for contentiousness'
3) considering professional athlete's tendencies to make headlines for taking drugs, domestic violence and sexual assault, are these overpaid, intellectual underachievers really the kind of role models that schools should be encouraging your children to emulate?
While children don't seem to walk or cycle to school anymore, there is a strong case to make them more active.
However, to prepare them for adult life, the mental toughness required for self-directed weight training and Calisthenics are much more likely to give them the skills they need to push themselves to their limits alone in the world of work than kicking a ball about with their friends.
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