Athletics; Positive Outcome?

By: Hilary McFillin

We all belong to a group, for some it may be a chess club, an orchestra, or even the punk rock group, or not a group at all.  But for us who do belong to a group we do so for friendships, to accomplish certain goals, and to fulfill the social roles that have been set for you.  Social roles is a set of expectations for people who occupy a given social position or status. No matter what the group is we belong, we all feel the pressure of social roles we are expected to fulfill.  If your a mathlete, you must be exceptional at mathematics, if your a soccer player, you must have acquired much skill and hard work to be the best.

In this organic post I am going to concentrate on the athletic group and try to determine if the pressure is given, will result in a positive or negative outcome.  There are many athletes around the world that have succeeded and that have failed.  For us, we all know about Barry Bonds.  Barry Bonds is a famous baseball player, who was caught with taking steroids.  In 2007 he was indicated on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to the grand jury during the government's investigation, testifying he did not knowingly take any illegal steroids. The trial began March 21, 2011.  He was convicted on April 13, 2011 on the obstruction of justice charge.  All though many of us say he cheated, he had much pressure upon him to be the best. 

But yet, although he may not be a prime example of the postive affects athletics has on people, there are many.  Statistics show that men who participated in high school athletics that were at the age of 32 and graduated from college, received 31% more in their paychecks than those who were college graduates that did not participate in athletics.  I believe that there is much pressure in athletics, but there is a positive side.  You are more likely to do better in school, for if you do not then you are ineligible to play a sport.  Those who are involved in sports are less likely to become involved in drugs and alcholol and other misbehaviors. 

"Sports and other forms of vigorous physical activity provide educational experience which cannot be duplicated in the classroom. They are an uncompromising laboratory in which we must think and act quickly and efficiently under pressure and then force us to meet our own inadequacies face-to-face and to do something about them, as nothing else does.... Sports resemble life in capsule form and the participant quickly learns that his performance depends upon the development of strength, stamina, self-discipline and a sure and steady judgment. "
--Supreme Court Justice Byron White

Statistics also show that those kids who are involved in sports are more likely to do better in school, are more likely to attend college, and are less likely to be truant or drop out of school than their less active peers. But we see our educational system continue to cut recess and physical education programs to spend more time on academics.  High school students who play sports are more likely to attending college at the age of 21 than non participants.  High school athletes are also more likely to have a positive relationship with the school than non participants.  A study of 22, 696 high school students in 1,052 schools found that both male and female athletes had higher grades, higher educational aspirations and fewer school discipline problems than non-athletes.
There are two sides that you can take for belonging to a social group such as athletics.  Negative, so much pressure that we rely on "medicaliaztion", to make us better.  Medicalization meaning "fixing" natural process with medicine.  The positive is that we discipline our children and hopefully point them into the right direction of becoming successsful Americans.