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Should Athletes Feel Morally Obligated to Act as Role Models for Today Youth, and Why or How Might These Athletes Not Be Capable to Act as the Role Models That Society Would Like Tem to.

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Should Athletes Feel Morally Obligated to Act as Role Models for Today Youth, and Why or How Might These Athletes Not Be Capable to Act as the Role Models That Society Would Like Tem to.
Abstract Behavioral studies show that role models have an immense impact on today 's American youth. In this paper, there will be review and examination of the question, should athletes be morally obligated to take the responsibility of acting as role models and why, or why not? It will ask many questions that could change your opinion on what the responsibility of the athlete is or should be.

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Proposal

Children these days need role models more than ever. Crime rates are at a high, gang activity is increasing, and parents are working more, resulting in children being unsupervised. It all boils down to one word: why? Could one reason be that children are not being properly supervised? Parents have to take up second jobs or work really long hours to keep up with the increasing prices of homes and cost of living. This leaves teenagers and young boys and girls more exposed to the rough crowds and peer pressure of society. Instead of coming home from school and going down to the end of the street to play a game of baseball with the boys in the neighborhood, boys are now caught up video games that encourage shooting and fighting. Who in our world can help change this?
How can we as adults help the younger generation? We can encourage, suggest, and recommend positive activities and good people to look up to. Athletes? Never, has anyone asked for athletes to be perfect human beings and ask that they don 't do anything wrong. Yes, there are baseball players who use steroids, NBA players who leave the court to fight people in the stands, and yes there are football players that have gold teeth. But another argument that could be made is that there are far more good athletes than there are bad. Look at Michael Jordan, the best basketball player ever. He wasn 't caught up in drugs, gangs, and violence. So doest it all start with the parents? Commercials such as the save your kids ' foundation quotes "Your choices shape



References: Barr, R (2003, July 31) Kobe: A lesson learned. Sportsline.com Birnbaum, L (2003, July) Are role models right? Faculty.css.edu. Vol 6 No 7 Carte, G (1999, June 20) The new face of role model. Usaweekend.com Elder, L (2001, Feb 15) Athletes and role models. Townhall .com Hume, M (2001, September 18) Athletes are role models in crisis. Thehoya.com Lucchesi, R (2004 October 18) The misconception of athletes as role models. Californiaaggie.com Lundquist, J: Giuliano, T & Wike, K (2003 May 31) The emergence of professional athletes as role models. Psychologicalscience.com Mazeika, V (1997 September 22) Role-Playing. Daily bruin.ucla Miedzian, M (1991) Boys will be boys: Breaking the link between masculinity and violence. Peace.ca Williams, M (2004, Dec 7) Professional athletes as role models? Blackcollegeview.com

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