White people obsession with kids sports
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
I’m a first gen Asian immigrant and have a middle schooler and elementary schooler. I grew up in Asia and moved here as an adult. In the course of raising my kids, I’ ve gotten to know people from various ethnicity and races. My immigrant friends from India, china, Korea, Nigeria, Pakistan, Ghana all have one thing in common in that doing well academically is valued. Some of these cultures values sports but it’s only pursued seriously if the child has a tremendous level of motivation and talent. Otherwise, sports is something you do for fun and stay active. We’re unlikely to spend $$ and time pursuing travel sports or private coaching etc for an average kid.
As I interact with white colleagues, especially at work, their life revolves around sports. They coach multiple kids teams, 2 year olds are ice rinks over the weekend learning to skate. The level of rigor and commitment amazed me. I ask this from a place of curiosity and not judgement - why is the cultural importance of sports higher than academics in the American society? I mean, an above average soccer player has zero prospects in soccer while an above average engineer can make 6 digits right out of school. Can you help me understand? |
Anonymous
| I am a second-generation Asian American. TBH, I find the white obsession with sports equally as annoying as the FOB Asian obsession with academics. Kids need as much unstructured time as possible, spent alone or with friends and family, ideally in nature. Period. |
Anonymous
| How about the asian obsession with having their kids play an instrument? |
Anonymous
|
1.5 generation Asian here. DH is 1st gen and did his sport at an elite level (national team + world championships). But it took pretty progressive parents for that to happen. His parents were from a colonial country and very British in their sports mindset. They saw it as cultivating health, which is very Asian in its own way.
My family is more American in their mindset and sports are just a way to have fun and be alive and bond with community. It’s really not more complex than that. I will say that the early start thing is partly from awareness that even rec sports can be hard to access since facilities haven’t really expanded to match population increases in the last 30 years. For people who grew up in the 80s, it’s obvious that if your child isn’t competent by 9-10, they won’t get to play in middle school or high school. And for those of us who easily made HS teams back in the day with ease but limited experience, that’s pretty depressing. I do think there is some snobbery wrapped up in how 1st gen and immigrants look down on sports, but is also a self-protective measure because it can be a complicated part of culture to access as an outsider. DH and I are the same when it comes to heritage language school- we sort of scoff at it as Tiger-y and unnecessary, but under that is a layer of embarrassment because we don’t know enough to fit in with the fluent parents of other kids. |
Anonymous
Wait…im on the ice every weekend and most of the two year olds I see on the ice are Asians. Outside of Russian looking whites most of the people in skating are Asian |
Anonymous
|
Engineers can make 6-figures, but a lot of desirable jobs require different and non-academic skills. For example to be a CEO you need to manage teams and motivation all while overseeing layoffs. A board member needs to be able to pull the right people from his or her network to solve a difficult problem quickly. A lot more of this is learned through sports than books. In fact, statistically, career success is more closely aligned with team sports success than academic success.
My kids are dropping their team sports for other interests. They are also strong academically. I know that they will be losing out on valuable life lessons and skills that come from sports. |
Anonymous
I would love to see the studies that support this, if they exist. |
Anonymous
| I'm a cultural anthropologust and 2nd gen south asian. also from a former british colony and cultuvating a healthy bidy/mind playing sports was important as a hobby and social lubricant (playing tennis is good fofr beuiness type of mindset). It is easily observable when you go to any sort of corporate retreat etc how the people who are rain maker status partners etc also were on team sports. You can see the same sk9ills uised on teh field to cooperate, communicate worldelssly and be in symch with your team being played out while working. people who havent had a chance to develop those social skills that are focused pn a team effort to win are at a loss when confrnted with a team who has those skills either in a courtroom or in a conference room. In many ways team sports are wargames and America is a very martial nation, that is how we made our bones and how we operate, so not understanding that will limit your capacity to make your own goals. |
Anonymous
|
Google is your friend. Start with articles like these, go to the original research and then to the citations:
https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/being-a-team-player-why-college-athletes-succeed-in-business This article is from this year but the research has been available for years. There are more out there. Also plenty of articles simply linking career and sports success. The research for this particular article shows that team sports players admitted with lower gpas than average outperform peers. (In contrast, individual players of wealthy sports, indicating a wealthy background, only leads to a slight career advantage). |
Anonymous
Your link is about college sports. The vast majority of kids playing sports in elementary school (this forum) won’t make it that far in their chosen sport. It’s interesting, but I do wonder if the crop of kids who become collegiate athletes is fundamentally different. Your take away may be overly broad. |
Anonymous
That’s just racist bro |
Anonymous
| White people love suburbans soccer lacrosse a d field hockey |
Anonymous
| racist!!!!!!!!! |
Anonymous
| Asians are obsessed with piano what’s the point |
Anonymous
1. Because having your children grind their childhoods away solely on academics is not appealing to most white parents. 2. Sports are social and team oriented, and thus teach a different set of skills/lesson to children. It’s not wasted time, you learn a lot, for instance about dedication, teamwork, and responding to adversity. 3. A lot of the kids who are heavy into sports are also quite successful academically. As in all things, there comes a point of diminishing returns where there isn’t that much incremental benefit to the next hour of study, so some of this time is more efficiently used elsewhere. 4. Most parents who are involved in travel sports understand that it’s not likely to be going anywhere. While there are certainly some pathological exceptions, generally it’s driven by kids who really love a particular sport but need a higher level of competition that is available in local rec leagues. |