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Academics and scholars are unlikely to agree, but sport and physical education have the potential to strengthen the social fabric of nations and deepen bonds inter se. Therefore it’s important for political and academic leaders to review and revisit traditional attitudes towards sports education and acknowledge the role of sports and athletics towards building and binding communities and nations.
I believe well-conceived sports and fitness programmes have the potential to improve family life, unify communities, improve health, build character, enhance academic performance, teach life skills conterminously with reducing obesity, alcohol and drug abuse, teenage depression, unwanted pregnancies, and many other social ills which plague our communities and countries.
Most people would agree that teams, families, networks of families, cities, states, nations and even networks of nations build communities which are socially beneficial, peaceful, harmonious and cooperative. Everyone understands the intrinsic capability sport has for creating feelings of belonging to groups in which participants feel safe, cared for and energised by life. However, most people don’t make the effort to invest the time and money required to build communities.
While the reasons for such inertia may differ across countries, I believe we are missing the boat by failing to take full advantage of the community-building opportunities that sport and fitness activities provide. It’s important to appreciate that communities built around sports activities offer:
• A meeting ground where caring parents and coaches can interact with children
• A shelter from the baleful influences of the marketplace which dominate the lives of children in malls, on television, cell phones and computers. Omnipresent marketers distract children and families from developing physical fitness and motor skills
• Opportunities to learn life skills, such as how to become good team players within families, schools and community organisations
• Opportunities to perform public service with children’s sports teams by taking responsibility for administering season-long community improvement projects.
In addition, parents involved with their children’s sports and games are given opportunities to bond with each other and share responsibility for supporting children as they become responsible citizens in their communities.
It would be impolite and foolish to deny that school and youth sports education as currently dispensed, have on occasion contributed to the reduction of social evils in many neighbourhoods. This clearly establishes that sports education can do so much more if delivered with a larger purpose to inspire, educate and unify children, families, neighbourhoods and communities.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) understands the power of sports to attain much greater goals than the mere physical well-being of children. According to the IOC charter, its mission is to:
• Encourage and support the promotion of ethics in sport as well as education of youth through sports, to ensure the spirit of fair play and non-violent competition.
• Cooperate with competent public and private organisations and national sports authorities to place sport at the service of humanity to promote peace;
• Encourage and support measures protecting the health of athletes;
• Encourage and support the efforts of sports organisations and public authorities to provide for the social and professional future of athletes;
• Encourage and support the development of sport for all.
Please note the words used to describe IOC’s role in its charter: “ethics; spirit of fair play; non-violent competition; in the service of humanity; promote peace; protecting the health of athletes; provide for the social and professional future of athletes; the development of sport for all”. All these words describe the dimensions of the interpersonal responsibility of sportspersons, and how they are obliged to assume responsibility for the well-being of each other.
With over 40 years of experience as an NBA player and coach, I recommend sports education for community-building through sports participation. But whether or not parents and coaches consciously choose community-building as a goal of sports, there is nevertheless a pressing need for the sports community worldwide to unite to agree upon the greater purpose of sports education, participation and activity to attain the lofty goals enunciated in the IOC charter. The Olympic Games 2012, to be staged in London in August, provide a good opportunity for athletes and participants to build enduring networks and communities even as they compete furiously for medals and honour.
(Dr. George A. Selleck is a San Francisco-based advisor to EduSports, Bangalore)