Children Need to Play, Not Compete Essay Example
“Children Need to Play, Not compete”
Taylor Worrell
English 101 Mon/Wed 1:30
3/2/2011
Everyone wants to win. But should that be a child’s top priority? Children’s sports should be more focused on cooperation and pure fun. The physical and psychological negatives are not worth the feeling of winning a game or making a team. Competitive sports have too many negatives that outweigh the positives and should be either removed or restructured. After children are fully prepared and mentally and psychologically developed, by age twelve or so, children can move on to playing to win. “Children Need to Play, Not Compete” by Jessica Statsky is an explanation as to why children sports need to be less competitive. The stress of winning seems to be getting worse and worse as time goes on. Children are losing the love for sports because the fun is slowly but surely being taken away. Statsky states that, “even when children are not injured, fear of being hurt detracts from their enjoyment of the sport.” There are also psychological issues, which shouldn’t be a problem children have to deal with. Sports should be somewhat of an outlet, an escape for children to enjoy themselves apart from their everyday life, not an added stress. As Statsky ads, “Winning and losing may be an inevitable part of adult life, but they should not be a part of childhood.” Childhood is a time for making memories, participating in things that make children happy, and enjoying their time. Instead of stressing about winning, practicing, losing, making the team, and getting hurt, children should purely be having fun playing the sports that they love. Jessica Statsky presents a very reasonable and logical argument. It is hard to disagree with her viewpoint after reading the article. All of her examples were relevant and accurate. Statsky ties together her opinion along with facts and statistics. She makes several references to various books and authors and even sources such as the Los
Taylor Worrell
English 101 Mon/Wed 1:30
3/2/2011
Everyone wants to win. But should that be a child’s top priority? Children’s sports should be more focused on cooperation and pure fun. The physical and psychological negatives are not worth the feeling of winning a game or making a team. Competitive sports have too many negatives that outweigh the positives and should be either removed or restructured. After children are fully prepared and mentally and psychologically developed, by age twelve or so, children can move on to playing to win. “Children Need to Play, Not Compete” by Jessica Statsky is an explanation as to why children sports need to be less competitive. The stress of winning seems to be getting worse and worse as time goes on. Children are losing the love for sports because the fun is slowly but surely being taken away. Statsky states that, “even when children are not injured, fear of being hurt detracts from their enjoyment of the sport.” There are also psychological issues, which shouldn’t be a problem children have to deal with. Sports should be somewhat of an outlet, an escape for children to enjoy themselves apart from their everyday life, not an added stress. As Statsky ads, “Winning and losing may be an inevitable part of adult life, but they should not be a part of childhood.” Childhood is a time for making memories, participating in things that make children happy, and enjoying their time. Instead of stressing about winning, practicing, losing, making the team, and getting hurt, children should purely be having fun playing the sports that they love. Jessica Statsky presents a very reasonable and logical argument. It is hard to disagree with her viewpoint after reading the article. All of her examples were relevant and accurate. Statsky ties together her opinion along with facts and statistics. She makes several references to various books and authors and even sources such as the Los