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Encouraging
Your Child to Become a Killer? Organized Sports For most of human history, competitive sports have been a masculine activity – closely linked to the martial tradition of preparing for war. Competitive sports have been termed “war without guns.” In our era, sports have become something very different – dominating our culture. Churches are expected to adapt their schedules to accommodate sporting events. Universities have long since abandoned Latin, Greek, and rhetoric and many have become little more than a conduit for the football team (as well as other sports). High school sports have become a bastion of cut-throat competition, as college scholarships often hinge on performance. Competitive sports, especially high school, college, and professional are really not about exercise and learning teamwork. They have become big business. They’re not about fun and relaxation, but rather have to do with money, college admission, and career opportunity. In societies that engaged in constant warring, as America is fast becoming, health and strength were of the utmost importance for the young men (and now women). Ancient origins of Sports Most early sports were used in preparation for war or to develop hunting skills, and because of this many were referred to as combat sports. The Greeks and the Romans were the first to establish sporting festivals that served as celebrations as well as the functional use of preparing men to fight. General Douglas Macarthur said, “I was convinced that the soldiers who practiced sport had become the best combatants. They were the boldest, hardest and most courageous of those that fought alongside me. These men, when they took part in battles, fighting other human beings and submitting to the rules of the combat, were the ones that more readily were prepared to accept and accomplish missions.” How to turn a Caring young person into a Soldier willing to Kill! -An
emotionally intelligent person is also emotionally
sensitive. Note - I have highlighed the above section of the article because it is copied from my website. I have contacted Lorraine but so far she has not agreed to give me credit for these quotes. - Here is the page it was copied from Steve Hein, Sept 2013
Competitive sports – since ancient times – has been the best way to train young people to take orders, to subjugate their own desires to that of the group and to the leader of the group, to be willing to cause injury to a member of the opposing team, and, eventually, to kill other human beings in war. Dangerous injuries to the young athlete’s body – particularly the musculo-skeletal system. Children are very different from adults when it comes to sports. Children have fragile growth plates at the end of their long bones that are responsible for the ultimate growth of the extremities. When a young child is injured, the growth plates may also be injured, leading to early growth plate closure that results in a shortened extremity if the growth plate closes prematurely, or a deformed knee, elbow, wrist, or ankle joint secondary to injury to only one side of the growth plate. As the child matures, after such an injury, he or she will be much more prone to severe arthritis. No Creative Play Children really don’t “play” anymore. Creative play has gone the way of the Model T Ford. Creative play helps the child learn to solve problems on his own, leads to development of the creative side of the child’s personality, teaches the child to make his own fun and not have to be constantly entertained, forces him to learn how to get along with others without domineering supervision by coaches and parents, and thus helps him – or her - prepare for life. Instead, after school, every day, children are driven to sporting events by their mother or in a car pool, told to put on uniforms so they all look alike, taught to subjugate their individuality for the good of the team, taught to be aggressive, and taught that winning is everything – which stresses them to the maximum. And Stress leads to Disease – and Dysfunctional Behavior! Children have no time to relax, no ability to entertain themselves inexpensively (that’s why they are frequently “bored” if they are not being constantly entertained), and no idle time to just enjoy being a kid. Sandlot baseball, a slice of American life enjoyed for decades by boys from coast to coast, appears on the verge of extinction. Many men over 40 remember those summer days when they headed to the park or vacant lot and played ball all day – or until Mom sent word that it was time for dinner. At the present time, most neighborhood ball fields sit empty on summer afternoons, the idea of unsupervised play having gone the way of the rotary-dial phones kids once used to round up the fellas for a game. The reasons for the sandlot’s demise, baseball coaches and sociologists say, go back to the changing family structure, video games, parents’ fear of crime, and the proliferation of organized and so-called “select” teams for more-talented kids. Johnny Damon of the New York Yankees says the structured environment of “select” ball sacrifices the fun kids get from playing on their own. “I think nowadays kids are getting so worn out playing baseball all year-round that by the time they get to the high school level they’re kind of tired of it, and tired of the politics of it, instead of just going out there and playing baseball,” Damon said. Does Competitive Sports REALLY Bring out the “Best” in Young People? Rather than competitive sports bringing out the “best” in young people, in most cases it brings out the worst: the desire to win at any cost, injuring another player becomes a legitimate part of the game – and is often admired and rewarded, it teaches aggressive behavior, it increases enormously the stress in the child’s life, it eliminates the possibility of creative, non-stressful play that is fun for the child, it has a great potential to injure the young child’s body, particularly his musculoskeletal system that can cause long-term – and possibly permanent- damage to the child’s body. This article was found here goodnewsaboutgod.com/studies/spiritual/home_study/child_destruction.html |
Core Components of EQI.org Respect | Empathy Other EQI.org Topics: Emotional
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