Can we call this a "teaser title?" It's clear to me the wording is to attract clicks. The wording also attracts a lot of hyperbole.
What got me about this article is what is cited as the main issue, parenting, but then the choose to place the blame on money? It certainly appeals to the segment of society who believes the quote actually reads, "Money is the root of all evil."
The author makes some good points in the middle of this piece.
http://time.com/4757448/youth-sports-pay/
What got me about this article is what is cited as the main issue, parenting, but then the choose to place the blame on money? It certainly appeals to the segment of society who believes the quote actually reads, "Money is the root of all evil."
The author makes some good points in the middle of this piece.
Sports is no longer a prize unto itself. The prize today is a college scholarship, generational wealth, a glamorous lifestyle ā and so parents become destination-obsessed.
The creep of intensity in sports, driven by parents, has moved to younger and younger ages for the kids. It has migrated from the professional level to college to high school to middle school to the various local travel teams for our eight-year-olds. The educational component of sports is diminished. Itās less about the process and learning teamwork, discipline, that there is a connection between practice and improvement.
Now the goal is to make the next rung on the way to the prize. Make the travel basketball team as a nine-year-old so you can make the middle school team, then varsity, then win a college scholarship and the NBA contract.
In most communities, if the parent chooses not to enroll a child in travel sports, the parent is choosing to nonmainstream their kid. If the family does not sacrifice weekday evenings and all weekends beginning at the time kids are nine years old, these kids will likely be denied a high-school athletic experience.
This leads to two negative consequences on our children. First, parents and our societal sports infrastructure are forcing early specialization in a single sport (or in areas other than sports, such as piano, violin, chess), which narrows the development of children. Second, the intensity and need for an edge to get the prize has led to a cottage industry of extra coaching, much like SAT preparation courses, that extends the dynamic of "haves and have-nots" into sports, un-leveling the playing field.
Specializing in one sport is not a bad thing, and at a certain point is a necessity. That point used to begin in college. In my high school days, there were plenty of two- and three-sport athletes. This is much less common now. In todayās competitive high school programs, athletes play a sport in one season and continue to prepare for that same sport in the other two seasons. In general, the sport they play is picked exclusively years earlier. The youth-sports leagues outside the school programs for basketball, soccer, baseball, lacrosse will schedule tournaments and practices over each other so that a player is forced to choose only one sport due to scheduling conflicts. Our eight-year-olds need to decide and place their bets.
I'm seeing a hell of a lot of bad parenting as well as misplaced blame; "it's the money." The parents love of money leading to horrible decisions? There, I'm sold.The creep of intensity in sports, driven by parents, has moved to younger and younger ages for the kids. It has migrated from the professional level to college to high school to middle school to the various local travel teams for our eight-year-olds. The educational component of sports is diminished. Itās less about the process and learning teamwork, discipline, that there is a connection between practice and improvement.
Now the goal is to make the next rung on the way to the prize. Make the travel basketball team as a nine-year-old so you can make the middle school team, then varsity, then win a college scholarship and the NBA contract.
In most communities, if the parent chooses not to enroll a child in travel sports, the parent is choosing to nonmainstream their kid. If the family does not sacrifice weekday evenings and all weekends beginning at the time kids are nine years old, these kids will likely be denied a high-school athletic experience.
This leads to two negative consequences on our children. First, parents and our societal sports infrastructure are forcing early specialization in a single sport (or in areas other than sports, such as piano, violin, chess), which narrows the development of children. Second, the intensity and need for an edge to get the prize has led to a cottage industry of extra coaching, much like SAT preparation courses, that extends the dynamic of "haves and have-nots" into sports, un-leveling the playing field.
Specializing in one sport is not a bad thing, and at a certain point is a necessity. That point used to begin in college. In my high school days, there were plenty of two- and three-sport athletes. This is much less common now. In todayās competitive high school programs, athletes play a sport in one season and continue to prepare for that same sport in the other two seasons. In general, the sport they play is picked exclusively years earlier. The youth-sports leagues outside the school programs for basketball, soccer, baseball, lacrosse will schedule tournaments and practices over each other so that a player is forced to choose only one sport due to scheduling conflicts. Our eight-year-olds need to decide and place their bets.
http://time.com/4757448/youth-sports-pay/
