International Year of Sports
EDUCATION IN SPORTS by F&EG -5/2005-
The United Nations declared 2005 as the International Year of Sport and Physical Education. They say sports encourages democracy, fights poverty, can have a long-lasting positive impact on public health, peace and the environment. Here’s why:
Sport and physical education play an important role in human development. By their very nature, sport and physical education are about participation, inclusion and a sense of belonging. They bring individuals and communities together, highlighting commonalties and bridging cultural and ethnic divides.
At the same time, physical education classes are often the first to be reduced or cancelled in schools in hard economic times, conflict or under the pressure from other academic fields.
Young people learn better when they are having fun and are being active. Sport and physical education provide a forum to learn skills such as discipline, confidence and leadership and they convey core principles that are important in a democracy, such as tolerance, cooperation and respect. Sport and physical education teach the fundamental value of effort and how to manage essential steps in life such as victory or defeat.
There are also psychological benefits such as reducing depression and improving concentration. The skills and values learned through sport are especially important for girls, given that they have fewer opportunities than boys for social interaction outside the home and beyond family networks. Through sport, girls are given the chance to be leaders and improve their confidence and self-esteem. As girls begin to participate in sport, they also acquire new interpersonal links and access to new opportunities, allowing them to become more engaged in school and community life.
Giving young people with disabilities the opportunity to participate in physical education is crucial for social inclusion and self-esteem.
Cultural Influence
Nationally, about 35% of Hispanic girls play interscholastic sports, compared with 55% of non-Hispanics, according to U.S. Department of Education data. It worries school officials and others because girls who don’t play sports miss a wide range of benefits for their health and academic success. Experts say promoting sports to prevent these problems is crucial for Hispanic girls because they are at greater risk for problems such as teen pregnancy and obesity and are more likely to drop out of school than non-Hispanics. Hispanics have surpassed African-Americans as the nation’s largest minority group. Coaches and athletics directors say they have difficulty encouraging Hispanic girls to play sports, often because of parental reluctance.
“Most of these girls are athletically inclined,” says Raul Hodgers, athletics director at Tucson’s Desert View High School. “But it’s difficult to acclimate parents to the idea of kids staying after school.”
Schools in Mexico, where most of the Hispanic-Americans come from, don’t have after-school activities, Hodgers says. That time is reserved for family obligations. When Mexican families arrive in the USA, the idea of after-school activities is even more problematic since they often don’t have money or time to shuttle kids to practice or games.
Olympic Gold Winner Promotes Girls Sports
Mariel Margaret Hamm, nicknamed Mia, was born in Selma, Alabama, on March 17, 1972, the fourth of six children. It was the same year the United States passed Title IX, an amendment prohibiting sex discrimination at federally funded schools and colleges.
The law gave women’s sports equal footing with men’s sports in terms of opportunities and funding. Hamm was among those eager to develop their sports ability, but first she had to overcome the birth defect of a partial clubfoot.
“Casts were placed on her feet to try and correct that irregularity,” said Hamm’s sister Caroline Cruickshank. “As soon as those things were taken off, you could not stop her.”
Mia, the number one ranked all-time goal scorer in the history of women’s soccer, and three-time Olympic medalist, said as a child she was shy and struggled to fit in. It was through sports that she made friends.
Recognizing how fortunate she is to have had the opportunity to play soccer, and the huge impact it had on her life, she created the Mia Hamm Foundation dedicated to raising funds and awareness for two very personal issues for her: research for bone marrow diseases and the encouragement and empowerment of young female athletes.
“Separately, these two issues have had a profound effect upon me as an individual and I am committed to raising funds and awareness for them. My goal is to leave a positive and lasting legacy in the research of bone marrow diseases and for every female athlete to have the opportunity to play the sports they love,” said Hamm.
Go to www.miafoundation.org, for a source of opportunities and to learn more about the Foundation and the two causes it supports. Mia has decided to retire from soccer in the hopes of raising a family, with her husband, baseball star Nomar Garciaparra. *
