african americans Essay -- essays research papers

African Americans continued to live as second class citizens in the 1950’s and 1960’s, especially in the South, despite the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited states from denying anyone the right to vote due to race. States passed laws directed at separating the races and keeping blacks from the polls. During these times, African Americans and other Americans led an organized and strong movement to fight for racial equality. The movement often met with strong opposition, such as in Birmingham, Alabama, where police sprayed protestors with high pressure fire hoses.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the early 1900’s W.E.B. Du Bois established the NAACP, (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) which fought to end segregation, the separation of people on the basis of race. In the case of Brown vs. Board of Education, the Supreme Court struck down segregation as unconstitutional.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a seamstress and an NAACP officer, took a seat in the front row of the â€Å"colored† section of a Montgomery bus. As the bus filled up, the driver ordered Parks and three other African American passengers to empty the row they were occupying so that a white man could sit down without having to sit next to any African Americans. The leaders of the African American community, including many ministers, formed the Montgomery Improvement Association to organize a boycott. They elected the pastor o...

A central issue in Victorian novels Essay

Discuss the role and expectations of women in Middlemarch In Middlemarch Eliot demonstrates what she believes is an incongruity in Victorian society. She uses a range of female characters as both good and bad examples as to their fulfilment of differing expectations, and the roles they play in their interaction with others. The role that a character plays is a manifestation of expectation, and it depends on whose expectation this is that defines their place in society. The characters that most adapt their role to fit with the opinions of a majority often hold more prestige within the provincial society. However Eliot’s message is clear when we see that those who follow the expectations of a minority, and in particular those who follow their own path, end up happy by the close of the novel, even if the role which they assume is essentially an orthodox one. Victorian patriarchy gives the most inclination to expect to the male characters of the novel. Individuals such as Mr. Brooke hold very rigid, sincere views as to the proper conduct and position of women; he and the bulk of the male province believe in a ‘lightness about the feminine mind’, and that they are ‘too flighty’ to comprehend the same breadth of information as a male. He expects women to be an adornment, being able to ‘play you or sing you a good old English tune’ rather than have knowledge of ‘classics, mathematics’ and ‘that kind of thing’. He requires women to have the simple function of a light entertainer, never having need of an opinion because subjects that would require one are ‘too taxing’. Eliot is being highly ironic in depicting Brooke in this way, highlighting his want of a woman being able to perform tricks, like a complex dog, as ridiculous, and even more so in its acceptance among his friends. It is soon obvious that his friends agree with him so because they are of similar thinking. The opening of the novel depicts a meal at which both Sir James Chettam and Mr. Casaubon are guests of his, and they both seem to be similarly inclined as far as their expectations of women, although perhaps more in deed than in word. Sir James displays outrageous naivety towards women with sweeping statements such as; ‘ladies usually are fond of Maltese dogs’. Eliot is presenting him with such irony that he is made to look extremely misguided in such a channelled view that most ladies are ‘fond’ of something so specific as a Maltese dog. His over-simplistic thinking is coupled with an expectation of material love in women, which is obviously incorrect considering that he offers the dog as a gift to Dorothea who regards it as ‘parasitic’. Chettam errs in expecting Dorothea to love him for the ‘excellent human dough’ that he has received through birth. He has more emphasis on the quality of his future bride as a trophy rather than a lover, weighing in his mind whether it would be better to marry Dorothea or Celia, her sister, and concludes that Dorothea is ‘in all respects superior’. He expects women to share this unaffected, showy attitude towards love in assuming that he is capable of marrying either of the sisters, and that they naturally would coincide with his desire. He is therefore hurt when he learns that ‘he was not an object of preference to the woman he had preferred’, and we see that Dorothea is more unorthodox in her role in denying the ‘amiable, handsome baronet’ her courtship. Celia, however, is more accommodating to Chettam, and when she eventually marries him she assumes the role of a ‘great pet’. Her position of subordinance is also one of pampering; she has been socially elevated by marrying a wealthy aristocratic knight, and her attitude that women should aim for a status like her own is made clear when she scalds Dorothea that ‘she could think marrying Mr. Ladislaw, who has got no estate or anything’. The intentions of Sir James and the theories of Brooke are disappointed in Dorothea because the preordained role that she has designated herself is one of intellectual expansion and assistance, in order that she may ‘make life beautiful’. She has ‘not the same tastes as every young lady’, believing it her destiny to marry someone scholarly and great. She ruminates early in the novel how she ‘would have accepted’ Milton, so that she could aid him in his studies ‘once his blindness had come on’, and also ‘the judicious Hooker’, so that she could ‘save him from that wretched mistake he made in matrimony’; in both of these cases she would consider such a union a ‘glorious piety’. She considers her role as being in harmonious union with an intellectual who is destined for great works; a man who’s physical weaknesses she could accommodate for, whilst she could gain some scholar through matrimonial instruction. Although her idea of ‘a really delightful marriage’ is not necessarily unorthodox inasmuch as she is prepared for a life of subservience under someone she genuinely believes to be superior to herself, it is Dorothea’s criteria concerning the nature of her partner distinguishes her from other characters such as Celia or Rosamond Vincy; she desires an element of ‘a sort of father’ in her husband, which is why she rejects the offer of marriage from Sir James, who could ‘never affect her as a husband’. Marriage to Edward Casaubon fulfils her preconception of her future role, regarding his knowledge as ‘a lake compared to [her] little pool’. This may have been the case had Mr. Casaubon had similar expectations for her as his wife. Having been ‘looking forward to higher initiation in ideas’, she is disappointed when Casaubon considers her a hindrance rather than an aid. He expects her to be more of a background secretary, doing his bidding whenever he so wishes. Even during the courtship when Dorothea asks whether she should ‘prepare’ herself ‘to be more useful’ and ‘learn to read Latin or Greek’, to aid him in his study, he discourages her from taking such an active role in their marriage by fearing ‘that it might be wearisome’ to her. On their honeymoon disaster transpires when Casaubon has an outburst in which he demands that Dorothea stay out of his scholarly affairs, because ‘the true subject matter lies entirely beyond [her] reach’. So Dorothea’s role and Casaubon’s expectations regarding their marriage contradict, and this ultimately brings about their downfall. Perhaps Dorothea’s idea of matrimonial role would have clashed with the majority of the Middlemarch denizens. This certainly appears to be the case at one of Brooke’s functions at Tipton Grange when various men discuss her and compare her with Rosamond Vincy. Their expectation of an element of ostentation in women is shown when Mr. Chichely concludes that Dorothea is does not ‘lay herself out’ enough to please them, and that ‘there should be a little filigree about a woman’. This conception of the ideal young woman seems to exhibit itself in Rosamond, whom Chichely would choose above both Dorothea and Celia. Rosamond considers her destined role as a married woman, and, similarly to Celia, pursues elevation in ‘that middle-class heaven, rank’. She sees marriage to Tertius Lydgate as desirable because of his ‘certain air of distinction congruous with good family’ with which she is impressed. She also feels that he has prospects of leaving Middlemarch, which would fit her preferred role perfectly as it would sever connections with her lowborn mother.

Benefits of Youth Sports - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 16 Words: 4726 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/09/20 Category Sports Essay Type Narrative essay Did you like this example? The benefits of youth sports Points Amateur sports used to mean varsity and JV teams in high school and college, but today more than thirty million kids play on a wide range of recreational and competitive or select teams at younger and younger ages. Parents want to encourage safe sports for their children, both on the field and off. Whether your athlete is a five-year-old beginner or the star of a varsity team, The Young Athlete provides guidance on everything from working with the coach to preventing and treating sports-related injuries. Jordan D. Metzl, M. D. co-founder and medical director of The Sports Medicine Institute for Young Athletes and one of Americas premier pediatric sports physicians, explains: * How to keep your child athlete healthy in mind and body * How to deal with the coach and other parents and help your child handle team pressure * How to recognize and prevent injuries such as fractures, ligament tears, and repetitive stress injuries * How to recognize when your child is doing too much * How to judge the impact of daily physical practice on growing bodies The Young Athlete provides two kinds of guidelines. First, it helps both you and your child keep a sensible perspective on the benefits of organized sports and avoid a win at all costs mentality. Through personal advice and anecdotes from his medical practice, Dr. Metzl, a marathon runner, Ironman triathelete, and former college soccer player, helps parents evaluate real-life situations and decisions. He addresses the concerns of parents who have no experience in sports but want to encourage their children to achieve their utmost potential. Second, this book focuses on strategies that can help prevent injuries and promote health. Dr. Metzl tells you how to recognize the most common injuries and determine their degree of seriousness. He also discusses the nutritional needs of the developing athlete and the benefits of strength and preventive conditioning before and during t he season. The Young Athlete is a comprehensive guide that will enable your young athlete to be the best that he or she can be, both on and off the field. Chapter 1 MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO (A SOUND MIND IN A SOUND BODY) Sports are for fun, but they also offer benefits and lessons that carry over into all aspects of life. When kids are asked why they play sports, heres what they say: * To have fun * To improve their skills * To learn new skills * To be with their friends * To make new friends * To succeed or win * To become physically fit Kids usually get the benefits they seek from sports and more. Kids need attention and respect (in that order), but they have few ways to get them. What is unique about sports is that they offer kids an arena where they can earn attention and respect by exerting their natural abilities. Kids are good at sports because sports are essentially about speed, strength, coordination, vision, creativity, and responsiveness-the necessary physical attr ibutes are the attributes of youth. Given that athletics involves all aspects of the human being, it is not surprising that participants benefit in all of the areas they mention. According to researchers at the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State University, kids who participate in organized sports do better in school, have better interpersonal skills, are more team oriented, and are generally healthier. Participation in sports provides opportunities for leadership and socialization, as well as the development of skills for handling success and failure. Moreover, when playing games, children learn how rules work. They see how groups need rules to keep order, that the individual must accept the rules for the good of the group, that rules entail a consideration of the rights of others. They also learn about competition, but within a restricted and safe system where the consequences of losing are minimized. Benefits for girls have been of particular interest to researchers. The Presidents Council on Physical Fitness and Sports reports many developmental benefits of participating in youth sports for girls, including increased self-esteem and self-confidence, healthier body image, significant experiences of competency and success, as well as reduced risk of chronic disease. Furthermore, female athletes do better academically and have lower school dropout rates than their nonathletic counterparts. The Womens Sports Foundation lists many ways that sports specifically benefit female athletes. These include their being less likely to become pregnant as teenagers, less likely to begin smoking, more likely to quit smoking, more likely to do well in science, and more likely to graduate from high school and college than female nonathletes. Female athletes also take greater pride in their physical and social selves than their sedentary peers; they are more active physically as they age; they suffer less depression. There is also some evidence that recreational physical activity decreases a womans chances of developing breast cancer and helps prevent osteoporosis. I am convinced that sports offer a unique arena in which children can successfully exert their talents. The arena is unique for two reasons. First, sports engage the child as a complete human being: all facets-not just physical, but also social, cognitive, and psychological-are engaged harmoniously in striving toward peak fulfillment. Second, sports involve youths working in an ongoing community composed of their peers as well as their peers families. Sports, that is, offer children an exhilarating, satisfying, rewarding way to participate in a larger world not generally accessible to nonathletes. Ads by Google Sale On Luna Sports Clothing Save Up To 20% On Luna Sports Free Shipping On Orders Over $50! RealCyclist. com/LunaSportsClothing Fundraising and Auctions We run fee-FREE auctions at events supply Memorabilia at COST price! www. helpinghand. com. a u Good Health Worldwide International Health Medical Insurance For Expats Overseas www. GoodHealthWorldwide. com Physical Benefits Fitness. Kids who play sports develop general physical fitness in a way thats fun, and they establish lifelong habits for good health. This is particularly important at a time when obesity in the United States has reached epidemic proportions: the incidence of obesity has increased by more than 50 percent among Americas children and teens since 1976 and continues to grow at a staggering rate! Stress relief. Sports allow kids to clear their minds of academic and social pressures, to literally run off the tension thats accumulated in their muscles. In the words of one patient, If you play really hard, you feel better because playing takes your mind off things that bother you, and afterwards you can concentrate better. Most doctors recognize the positive mental effect of physical exertion, even though were not sure exactly why this is so. I know that my ability to study in college and medical school was greatly enhanced when I ran during the day, and Im not the only athlete to find this true. Many athletes get better grades in-season (theories posit the discipline and the need to manage time, along with an increased ability to concentrate). During exams, Duke University opens its gyms twenty-four hours a day to provide stress relief for its students. Mastery. Sports give kids a satisfying, enjoyable way to develop their own talents: through personal effort they get good at something theyre interested in. Doing something well makes them feel good about themselves, but equally important, it teaches them about the process of how to improve and work more effectively. Learning a skill-to dribble left-handed, say, or to execute an effective second serve-entails a recognition that practice is essential and that improvement is incremental. The process of repetition teaches the athlete how to master a move and also how to experiment wit h different approaches to improve a skill. The feedback in sports is usually immediate and visible-does the ball go into the basket? -so that the athlete can change or repeat what shes doing and figure out how to get better. Not only that, the whole process of seeing practice lead to improvement gives kids a feeling of control, a feeling all too rare in their lives. Healthy habits. Because sports increase an awareness of ones body and how it responds to different stimuli and circumstances, sports help prevent drug and alcohol abuse. Most athletes value what their bodies can do and want to maintain those abilities. Being an athlete also gives kids an acceptable reason for telling their friends no to drugs, booze, and other high-risk, unhealthy behaviors. (Of course, not all athletes avoid drugs and alcohol. ) Ads by Google Why Meditation? 15 Minutes Of Meditation Each Day Will Dramatically Improve Your Life www. silvaultramindsystem. com How to Do Meditation? Easily Learn How t o Meditate Download Free Meditation Audio www. SilvaLifeSystem. com Racing camels,horses,dogs improve performance, muscle tone increase work rate ,appetite, www. collovet. com. au Personal Benefits Valuing preparation. Sports help kids learn to distinguish between effort and ability. Sports increase self-discipline and the awareness of the value of preparation because kids can see the difference in their performance. Competitive athletes learn the importance of effort, being prepared (mentally and physically), and enlightened risk-taking. They see that raw physical talent is not always sufficient to win the game, but that preparation is essential. This includes mental preparation (staying focused) and physical fitness as well as practicing the plays with their teammates in team sports. They learn to evaluate risk versus reward. Another invaluable lesson is discovering that mistakes are part of learning; they signal that a particular approach is unsuccessful and you must try an other. Kids also learn to deal productively with criticism as part of improvement and preparation. Resilience. Sports provide an unparalleled model for dealing with disappointment and misfortune. Young athletes learn to handle adversity, whether its picking themselves up after losing a big game or not getting as many minutes as they wanted. They find ways to deal with losing and go on, because theres another big game next week or next year. They figure out what to do to get what they want for themselves. They put in extra time on fitness or work on specific weaknesses in their game (long-ball trapping, hitting to the opposite field, looking the ball into their hands). Athletes also learn to deal with the physical and psychological effects of injury. I broke my jaw playing soccer and missed most of the season my junior year in high school. I went through the classic stages of grief, from This cant be true to ultimate acceptance. Two months of sitting out, waiting to heal, and d ealing with physical and emotional pain was devastating. There were times early on when I sat in my bed whimpering from pain. But as time went on and my jaw began to heal, I somehow began to realize what almost all athletes in pain realize: the only person who is going to help you is yourself. You find the limits of what you can ask of yourself and know that you will deliver. This learning to get the best out of yourself carries over into all aspects of life. People can find their internal drive through training and hard work, but adversity really brings it out. In my case, I came back with stronger resolve. In my senior year I became an all-district soccer player and was propelled toward a college soccer career. Attitude control. Older teens learn that a confident attitude improves their performance, and that they have some control over their attitude. They learn to disregard comparative stats in preparing for an opponent and instead to adopt attitude enhancers such as visualiza tion exercises, team or individual rituals, singing specific songs together, or having dinner as a team the night before the game. Some might call these superstitions, others, self-fulfilling prophecies, but they work. Leadership opportunities. Team sports offer kids a rare opportunity to serve as leaders. Kids can be in a position to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their various teammates and help to exploit their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses. They can minimize conflicts among players. They can reinforce values-such as fair play, teamsmanship, hard work, mental preparation-by speaking up when appropriate and setting a good example. They can also take the initiative in arranging for team dress on game days (football players wear their jerseys to class, female basketball players wear their warm-up pants), organizing team dinners or team movie nights, and inviting teachers and administrators to their games. Identity and balance. Being part of a group is i nordinately important to kids, and sports make kids feel like they belong, whether its to the group of athletes in general or their team in particular. Sports also contribute to a teenagers sense of a stable identity with particular values. Im a football player is a very different statement than I play football. People are complicated, however; no individual is just one thing. Its better to encourage children-and adults-not to assume a single identity to the exclusion of all else. Time management. Young athletes learn to manage their time productively. They know they have to get their homework done, so they learn not to waste time (some of them even quit watching television and hanging out at the mall). They plan ahead, so that big school projects dont catch them by surprise. They even figure out they have to eat well and get a good nights sleep. Countless athletes, in school and the workplace, say that being an athlete taught them discipline that is invaluable in their lives on and off the field. Long-term thinking. Athletes learn the fundamental lesson of sacrificing immediate gratification for long-term gain. This is the basis for personal success as well as for civilization in general, and no lesson can be more valuable. Ads by Google Under New Ownership Local running/sk8/sport shop Students save 10% www. ontherunsports. com Masters Sport Management AISTS offers a Masters Degree in Sports Administration Technology www. aists. rg Racing camels,horses,dogs improve performance, muscle tone increase work rate ,appetite, www. collovet. com. au Social benefits Sports are a social activity. Team sports are obviously done with other people, but even individual sports are often done as a team (tennis, golf, track). All sports, however, are intended to be performed in front of others, and the social ramifications are many. Here are some of them. Relationships with other kids. Athletes develop relationships with their teammates. For boys, sports are a primary, a nd unfortunately sometimes the sole, way of socializing with others. In many schools and communities, nonathletic males find it difficult to develop a social network at all. For girls, who according to the feminist theorist Carol Gilligan tend to define themselves through their relationships rather than their achievements, sports offer yet another way to make friends and create an alternate peer group. According to Mike Nerney, a consultant in substance abuse prevention and education, multiple peer groups are always a good idea for teens, who have an intense need for inclusion and belonging, but who can also be volatile, cruel to each other, and foment destructive behavior as a group. Having a refuge when relations go wrong with one group can alleviate a great deal of stress and offer an alternative for kids who feel uncomfortable or frightened by peers who engage in high-risk activities. Teamwork. On a team, kids learn about cooperation, camaraderie, give-and-take. They learn that while their natural position might be wide receiver, the team needs a cornerback, so they sacrifice their personal desires and play defense. They learn that you dont have to like someone in order to work together toward a common goal. They also discover that you can work for people you dont respect and still be productive, improve your skills, and have fun. A team is a natural environment in which to learn responsibility to others: you cant stay out carousing the night before a game; sometimes you need to pass up a party in order to show up and play well. Kids learn these lessons from their teammates and, most important, a coach who encourages the good of the team over the needs of an individual player. This attitude is sometimes rare in todays sports climate, where whats glorified is to be the man. I think the earlier the message is instilled about the good of the larger whole, the better for kids in the long run. Diversity. Organized sports sponsored by clubs or youth lea gues not affiliated with schools offer players an opportunity to meet a variety of kids from different backgrounds. Students from public, private, and parochial schools come together in a common enterprise, crossing socioeconomic and ethnic lines, so that over time all players broaden their sense of how other people live. The genuinely multicultural environment is of tremendous importance in our polarized society. Kids play on the same team, wear the same uniform, share the same objectives and experiences. Sports are a great equalizer: rich or poor, black, brown, or white, are irrelevant. What counts is talent and heart. Ads by Google Football Stats CG Real-time on-air graphics Statistical data scouting system www. wtvision. com Movie Trailers Preview the latest movie trailers for new ; upcoming movies. movies. 701panduan. com Malaysia Tour Packages Beach, Diving ; City Experience Affordable Rates. Contact Us Today! www. mvision. com. my Social benefits part 2 Relationships wi th adults. When coaches, parents, and kids see each other at practice and games week after week, year after year, the adults learn to admire and praise the kids prowess and progress, even when kids are as young as third graders. This kind of attention helps youngsters learn to balance their own evaluation of their improving skills with the appraisal of others who are not blood relatives; they also begin the lifelong process of figuring out whom to listen to when they hear conflicting advice or assessments. In addition, for young athletes of all ages, attention from interested adults is not only flattering but also helps them overcome shyness and develop poise when talking to relative strangers in social situations. The ability to feel comfortable in a variety of social circumstances will be progressively more valuable in a world of multiple cultures and decreasing numbers of supportive communities. Sports give kids an opportunity to spend ongoing periods of time with an adult in a shared endeavor. Indeed, kids may spend more time with their coach than with any other adult in their lives, especially if theyre on a school team or a club team that practices two or more times a week. Ideally this coach cares about them as whole beings rather than particular talents who can run for touchdowns or block opponents shots. To thrive, kids need to be with adults who want them to do well in a variety of endeavors, who notice their improvements and hard work, who manifest sound values, and who dont pay attention to them solely because of their contributions to the win column. The coach-player relationship can be very strong, and even parentlike. Coaches of young athletes take on a tremendous responsibility to set a good example and treat their players respectfully. Thankfully, most coaches take this responsibility very seriously. Sometimes, the coach-player relationship can even be life-saving. A female coach of a varsity boys team reported that one of her players came to her saying, I need to talk to you. I found blood in my urine. Let me ask you something, the coach replied. Have you been having unprotected sex? No, of course not. I cant believe you asked me that, he said. Well, I need to know what direction to take you in. No matter what happened, you need to see a doctor. The coach recalled, This boy was very good looking and very popular. I knew what was going on. The doctor found he had picked up a venereal disease which could have made him infertile. The boy called me from the doctors office to say thank you. Participating in a community. Sports foster a sense of community: they give both participants and spectators the experience of belonging to something larger than themselves, the need for which seems to e hard-wired into the human brain. This is why kids love playing for their schools, why high school football games in small cities can draw tens of thousands of spectators week after week, and why adults identify with their college teams years after they have graduated. Playing for an institution or a community gives kids a chance to feel that they are making a genuine contribution to a larger group. Ads by Google Sports Stores Get all sort of sports equipments. Find list of sports stores here. www. 701panduan. com retire? After all the bills will yiu have enough to retire on? thisopneroad. com Smart Parents 7L Strategy Get Free e-zines, tips secrets to happier family and brighter kids! www. SmartParents. com. my High and low Sports can actually change the physiology of athletes and fans. Physical exertion can raise the level of pheronemes and endorphins, brain chemicals that cause exhilaration. Exercise can also elevate the serum testosterone level, which makes the heart beat faster. Spectators can feel depressed when their team loses and elated when their team wins. They, too, undergo physiological changes when watching their team: fans of the winning team experience an increase in testosteron e, whereas supporters of the losers undergo a decrease in testosterone. When playing for school or club teams, young athletes are afforded the opportunity to see how grownups and children treat one another and how this treatment has long-term consequences. They can see which adults care about kids, are willing to do their fair share and more, and take a stand for what they believe in. They see which parents are cooperative-pitching in to help with snacks, driving their kids teammates to games, serving as team treasurer, volunteering to line the fields on cold, rainy mornings. They hear parents screaming at the officials and recognize which ones know the rules and which dont. They see who supports their own children and others, who bullies their children or the officials. They see parents who teach their children to assume they are always right, are better than the other players, and that someone else, anyone else, is always at fault if things go wrong. They also see how the ki ds in these families emulate or reject their parents behavior. They think about how they will treat their own children and how they will behave with their friends as members of groups. One hockey father says, Part of the benefit of sports is that children observe its complex social dynamic among coaches, parents, players, and officials. Theres a wide range of ethics, such as the attitude toward authority. Do you try to abide by the spirit of the rules, get away with what you can, accept what an official says, or do you argue and yell at him, or complain about it? Another major element they encounter is the difference between teammates who are good at communicating and sharing versus those who are out to get what they can for themselves. This is a dichotomy adults face throughout life. Kids involved in sports have to consciously or subconsciously figure out where they fit into those various spectrums. Participating for years on the same team not only improves the play, because th e players learn each others strengths and weaknesses and where theyll be on the field or court, but it gives kids a wider view of the world and the people in it. Ads by Google Discount Hydration Wide Selection Of Brands ; Products Free Delivery For Orders Over S$50! BestBuy-World. com/ Stem Cell Autism Therapy Patients are Seeing Results Today Dont wait for Treatment Learn more www. StemCellTreatmentNow. com Smart Parents 7L Strategy Get Free e-zines, tips secrets to happier family and brighter kids! www. SmartParents. com. my Similarities of sports and arts Are the benefits of sports unique? Many have noted that the arts produce many of the same benefits as sports, for both participant and spectator. Sports entail all elements of human life-physical, emotional, cognitive, social-but in a simplified, orderly form. Sports boil life down to competition governed by agreed-upon rules. The opponents are known, the goals clear and quantifiable. Athletes practice the skills necessar y to excel and gain a sense of control and mastery. Sports are a public performance, which fosters a sense of community among people-participants as well as spectators-who would otherwise be strangers. At their best, they produce a sense of exhilaration. The arts are the other significant leisure activity that distills life down to simpler forms. The arts simplify life by selecting and arranging certain elements to create a unified, expressive whole. They too are intended for an audience. The performing arts, dance in particular, have much in common with sports: they take place outside of everyday life, the activities are physical and demand practice, and performance can produce exhilaration and a sense of community. What makes sports different from the arts is that they demand a spontaneous response to surprise. A dance is choreographed; the dancers know what they are to do at every moment. A game has set plays, but the athletes must respond to what their opponents do, or to the unexpected bounce of the ball. The denouement of the game is uncertain, often until its final seconds. This combination of total human exertion with an environment that balances control, spontaneity, and uncertainty leads to the unique excitement and satisfaction of sports, for both athletes and spectators. * As with most spheres of human endeavor, the benefits of sports can easily turn into deficits. Moderation is, as the Greeks pointed out, the key to wisdom. Many in the athletic community worry that youth sports have become too serious, and that the win-at-all-costs mentality has become the reality today. Youth sports shouldnt be an obsession that excludes other areas of life (academics, the arts, community service, family life, religious training). Sports should be just one arena of many in which kids have a chance to express themselves and have fun. When winning is overvalued, the idea of sportsmanship and fair play disappears, as does concern for the whole child. Whe n only a kids athletic talent is important, her character development, her academic performance and needs, her long-term physical health, the development of her skills at other positions on a team are neglected. The pressure to be a winner may push some young athletes toward unsafe performance-enhancing drugs or body-building supplements. Furthermore, when winning is the prime value, the public nature of sports can turn sour. An athlete who is not playing well or makes a mistake may feel humiliation and shame because she knows everyone is watching. Being a member of a team can become destructive if the players turn arrogant and fall into an us-them mentality, seeing opponents as the enemy and treating their nonathletic peers as inferior or contemptible. Furthermore, if a teenager overidentifies as an athlete, he will be ignoring other interests at a time when he should be broadening rather than narrowing his horizons. College and professional sports have become corrupted by the w in-at-all-costs mentality, and this corruption is intensified by big-money contracts for winning players, coaches, and organizations. Loyalty, camaraderie, sportsmanship, the joy of mastering skills- these values all too often disappear when winning is the only thing. If they remain uninfected by the toxins of winning at all costs and instead focus on effort and fair play, youth sports can be beautiful, exciting, and fun. They can provide kids with an extraordinary opportunity to express their talents and their character, to run around screaming and laughing with joy. The job of parents and coaches of young athletes is to maximize the benefits and minimize the deficits of youth sports by keeping a long-term perspective and helping kids do the same. Author Jordan D. Metzl, M. D. , is the medical director of the Sports Medicine Institute for Young Athletes at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. A Medical contributor to CBS News, he has published widely in the fie ld of sports medicine and speaks regularly to medical and parent groups both in the United States and around the world. A former college soccer player, Dr. Metzl is a seventeen-time marathon runner and two-time Ironman triathlete. More Carol Shookhoff, Ph. D. , writes frequently on educational issues. She is the mother of a teenage soccer player who also plays basketball and lacrosse and runs track. More Don’t waste time! 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