Society rarely questions the value of youth participation in sports. Many parents force their children to play sports, believing that such activity instills positive values like teamwork, cooperation, and sportsmanship. Mandatory participation in sports is a part of the physical education curriculum in most elementary schools. Yet sports participation can contribute to lowered self-esteem and aggressive, antisocial behavior in some children.
Competitive sports reflect society's value system. Since the United States, for the greater part of its history, has not felt the menace of foreign aggression and has no universal system of military training, sports fulfill the need to develop in youth the principles of offensive and defensive ability. Competition is based on struggle, the survival of the fittest: "Youth sports has traditionally been viewed as an avenue for channeling negative aggressive behavior into a positive, constructive direction" (Ramsey and Rank, 1997, p. 30). The veiled aim of many physical education programs is to develop strength in the masses, which is necessary for the survival of the nation in times of war.
Society also aspires to produce human beings who are good citizens, a goal that some experts believe is fulfilled with competitive sports. One of the most frequent arguments given in favor of sports participation is that it instills a sense of teamwork. Because society consists of diverse groups of individuals, citizens must be willing to join with others to effect change through a collaborative process. As Dewey (1972) puts it, the good citizen must be a group participant, "he is stimulated to act as a member of a unity, to emerge from his original narrowness of action and feeling and to conceive of himself from the standpoint of the welfare of the group to which he belongs" (p. 84). In other words, the good citizen cares about his or her society and its future. It is doubtful, however, that g...