This book articulates the important benefits of school sports and other co-curricular activities which empower youth and dissuade them from gang involvements and deviant behavior. It also describes how these voluntary programs motivate students to stay in school, earn better grades, reinforce the ideals of our Constitution more than any other single type of activity, and prepare youth in cooperative skills so greatly called for by employers today.
A collection of essays in which various authors examine the educational value of sport, challenging the long-held claims that organized sports are a beneficial and relevant aspect of America's educational enterprise.
In a revised, updated, and considerably expanded new edition of Sport, Theory and Social Problems, authors Eric Anderson and Adam White examine how the structure and culture of sport promotes inequality, injury, and complicity to authority at the non-elite levels of play in Anglo-American countries. By introducing students to a research-led perspective on sport, it highlights the operation of power, patriarchy, and pain that a hyper-competitive sporting culture promotes. Each chapter includes at least one key social theory, which is made accessible and pragmatic. The theory is then infused throughout the chapter to help the student engage with a deeper understanding of sport. In addition to examining how sport generates otherness, distracts children from education, and teaches the acceptance of emotional and physical violence, this new edition also examines how organized, competitive sport divides us by race, denies children the right to their own governance, and promotes brain trauma and chronic traumatic encephalopathy in those who are too young to consent to play contact sports. Sport, Theory and Social Problems: A Critical Introduction is an essential textbook for any sport studies degree with a focus on the sociology of sport, sport and social theory, children’s health and wellbeing, or sport and gender studies.
Do sports build character? An anthropologist and a sociologist explore the underpinnings of school sports and examine the evidence to support the prevailing assumption that sport is an ennobling experience. They find that participation has little effect on positive character development. Far from building model citizens, their research shows that competitive team sports may foster selfish motives and antisocial behavior. Rather than learning self-sacrifice and dedication, athletes often pick up the message that "winning isn''t everything - it''s the only thing."
Sociological Perspectives on Sport: The Games Outside the Games seeks not only to inform students about the sports world but also to offer them analytical skills and the application of theoretical perspectives that deepen their awareness and understanding of social processes linking sports to the larger social world. With six original framing essays linking sport to a variety of topics, including race, class, gender, media, politics, deviance, and globalization, and 37 reprinted articles, this text/reader sets a new standard for excellence in teaching sports and society.
For teachers at the college and high school levels, this volume provides cutting-edge research and practical strategies for incorporating sports into the U.S. history classroom.
What impact does sport have on the lives of ordinary people? How does sport help to perpetuate inequalities in society? What can social theory tell us about the role of sport in society? At their origin competitive sports were institutionalized in Western cultures for the privilege of white, heterosexual men. Over time sport has become more open to categories of people traditionally marginalized in society: women; those from lower social classes; gay men; people of colour; and those differently abled. However, focusing solely on increased social inclusion in sport masks significant problems with both the culture and structure of sport. This critical textbook examines social exclusion in sport and analyzes the socio-negative attributes associated with competitive, institutionalized sport, for all who play. Focusing on sport at non-elite levels, this book explores the lives of everyday citizens who play and examines how inequality and social deviance are structured into the social and sporting system. Each chapter uses a key social theory to address a particular social problem in sport, such as learned obedience to authority; the acceptance of pain and injury; the adoption of hyper-masculine, homophobic and sexist attitudes; the teaching of in-group/out-group; and the use of sport as a false mechanism for social mobility. By concentrating on real sport, and through the use of startling vignettes illustrating the experiences of real people, this textbook develops the critical senses, social conscience and theoretical understanding of all students of sport and anybody for whom sport is part of their everyday life.
Metzl, medical director, sports Medicine Institute for Young Athletes, and Shookhoff, a writer specializing in education issues, want parents and young athletes to keep a sensible perspective on the benefits of organized sports. They offer information on preventing injuries, recognizing common injuries and evaluating their seriousness, and understanding nutritional and exercise needsas well as dealing with coaches and other parents, helping children handle team pressures, and recognizing when a child is doing too much.
This comprehensive resource covers leadership, operations, financial and facilities management, and other chief administrative responsibilities to help readers better understand the athletic director's multifaceted role.
