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With so much talk about all that’s wrong with the world and everything our country does wrong, it turns out there’s something we do right. It’s called sports. Not for adults. That’s a whole other issue. I’m talking about youth sports. Summer league baseball. Soccer. Peewee football. All of it. Sure, every now and then parents get caught on tape fighting over a bad call, but that’s the exception.
A growing body of research is showing the social and economic benefits of participation in youth sports to be surprisingly large and overwhelmingly positive. Other things being equal, if a kid plays sports, he will earn more money, stay in school longer, and be more engaged in civic life.
The cool part of all this is how America differs from Europe in this way. Read it. It’s fascinating.
A recent scholarly paper by economists Alberto Alesina and Edward Glaeser of Harvard University and Bruce Sacerdote of Dartmouth College found that countries tend to build large welfare states when citizens believe that success in life is largely determined by luck. When citizens believe that hard work determines success, they tend to build leaner and more economically efficient governments.
Americans are remarkably different from Europeans in this regard. If you ask Americans whether the economically disadvantaged are poor because they are lazy or unlucky, 60 percent say lazy. If you ask Europeans, only 26 percent finger laziness. Alesina and his colleagues argue that these attitudes shape society by shaping governmental and social institutions.
“But,” the article asks, “why do these attitudes exist?” Youth sports has something to do with it. Keep reading.
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In the new world, hard work could help you get ahead.
Back then, in Europe, you could work very, very hard but you were in a dead end and pretty much confined to your station in life.
These are generalizations, but I bet they hold true for the most part.
Ah, a “Hudsucker Proxy” reference. Didn’t we have another one of those a few days ago?
The Europeans sound so depressed.
Nice article.
I would think that part of the impact of the sports is the physicality of it. Mind and body do really go together ( a reason why we should also be worried about the disappearance of gym in school).
Another useful article on this topic was The Uneven Playing Field in last weeks NYT Magazine, detailing the impact of injuries on young women.
Thanks for posting the horrible NYT magazine article, Harris. Between them, my daughter-in-law and her sister–both outstanding college volleyball players–have had 5 ACL repairs. My daughter-in-law’s health has been compromised for life and it is hard to think about without getting weepy. I’ve forwarded a copy on to several super parents I know, as well as my daughter’s VB coach.
This looks like as good a place as my to brag that my baby got his first coach pitched hit (as opposed to hitting off a tee)in his rag ball game last night. One of only two kids in the whole game to get one.
I don’t buy it.
Young athletes learn the formula for success in a market-based system.
This statement from the article says it all.The question though is, “What is success?” If you define success as making money and moving up in the company then I suppose it works. But if, as I think most on this sight believe, that success is caring about others and being an true imitator of Christ; I think sports fail. My mother hardly ever gets to see her grandkids (my niece and nephews) because their sport schedule doesn’t allow them time to come up on weekends and they’re too far (about a two hour drive) to just come for the evening. Way too many groups schedule games and practices on Sunday morning when the family should be at church. When sports are more important than church, what message is being sent?
Its an interesting theory and versions of it have been stated before but …. the lack of data on European participation makes it difficult to question its validity. Canada has the same rate of community sports but doesn’t have the same social attitudes nor does Australia which probably tops all countries in athletic participation.
I’m with Kathy on this one. Sports aren’t what they used to be. The stuff Ive seen more often than not is so competitive that it’s win at any cost. I have not seen a lot of sportsmanship - something I was brought up with - maybe I’m dating myself. You don’t see a lot of sandlot baseball anymore where kids play for the fun of it. Now it’s all organized sports. Nowadays what I see is win at all costs and a lot of sore losers. Practice schedules are as rigorous as the homework load they bring home every night. I see travel teams that cut inferior players and parents who figure this is Little Johnny and Little Susie’s ticket to that all important sports scholarship at college. (Because they sure don’t hand out many scholarships for academics these days unless you happen to be part of a minority or in financial need - but that’s for another thread).
What today’s athlets are learning is cutthroat competition and that’s what makes them successful in the corporate world. And it is at the expense of our soul.
Klasko - My kids were both high level competitive athletes, and due to good, ethical coaches learned the good lessons about teamwork and sportmanship as well as geting desired results through hard work.
The coaching determines much of the benefit (or detriment) to competitve sports.