The All-Sports Ministry of PA NJ & DE - Executive Summary Start-Up Budget & Prospectus

CIRCLE Working Paper 44: February 2006
Sports, Youth and Character: A Critical Survey
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION....................................... 3
a. methodological limitations..................... 4
b. conceptual and theoretical infelicities...... 5
II. THE LESSONS OF SPORT......................... 5
III. BASICS................................................ 6
a. too much too early?.............................. 8
b. competition’s role understood ............... 11
c. competition, participation, and fun......... 12
d. not enough?........................................ 14
IV. WHAT CAN WE CONCLUDE?.................... 15
V. THE MICROWORLD OF PARTICIPATION...... 17
VI. APPENDIX A......................................... 19
a. Shields and Bredemeier...................... 19
a.1. moral maturity: what are
psychologists looking for?............ 22
a.2. game thinking............................. 24
a.3. moral confusion........................... 25
b. Stoll, Lumpkin, Beller, and Hahm.............. 27
It has been recognized for centuries that sport
can contribute to education values that make for
the development of character and right social
relations . . . . [Within this contribution] there
are many intertwined and interwoven threads
of influences, subtle and not always easy to
analyze. But sportsmen who year by year have
contact with the playing of amateur games do
not need to be convinced by argument of the
validity of . . . [sport’s contribution].
Kennedy, 1931 1
Sport studies scholars . . . [present sports as
a] major source of . . . [social] problems . . . .
[But most] athletes, coaches, parents, youth
sports organizers, and spectators know from
experience that sports participation has offered
them numerous moments of pleasure, healthy
exercise, friendships . . . and lessons about
achievement, cooperation and competition
that spill over into nonsport contexts. The
critical sports studies perspective rarely rings
‘true’ as a complete story in the case of sports
participants.
Gatz, Messner, and
Ball-Rokeach, 2000 2
VI. APPENDIX B......................................... 27
a. Kohlberg............................................. 27
b. Neo-Kohlbergianism............................. 30
NOTES...................................................... 31
www.civicyouth.org 2