White people obsession with kids sports

[Anonymous]

First generation American born to Jamaican parents.
If you don't want to become a doctor or lawyer you're basically a no one...

[Anonymous]

Because teenagers are way less moody and emotional if they are physically active.

And because people don't want their kids to be overweight.

And because it helps them make friends.

[Anonymous]

Asians are pretty obsessed with individual sports

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

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.

I will add to this:
5. Physical activity promotes academic success. Humans are not meant to be sedentary.
6. Physical activity can be prevent or lessen mental health issues like anxiety and depression.
7. Team sports support friendships and social bonds, which are essential for human happiness.
8. Many kids love their sports and it makes them happy.

- signed immigrant POC from high academic achieving culture

[Anonymous]

I send my kids to Jewish day school and there is no obsession over sports. Focus is very much on academics. Perhaps our cultures have that in common!

In public schools, sports are very competitive and taken very seriously. Not a bad thing, just different cultures. Might also be a factor that the public schools are bigger, there is a greater number of talented athletes and making a team is more competitive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I send my kids to Jewish day school and there is no obsession over sports. Focus is very much on academics. Perhaps our cultures have that in common!

In public schools, sports are very competitive and taken very seriously. Not a bad thing, just different cultures. Might also be a factor that the public schools are bigger, there is a greater number of talented athletes and making a team is more competitive.

Also, my kids school day is longer due to their dual curriculum. A lot of kids do play sports after school (agree with other posters that maintaining physical activity is very important), but there is less time for it, hence going back to the culture piece.

[Anonymous]

I think you perceive people elevating sports over academics, when reality is that equal emphasis is placed on sports and academics. Sports has been wonderful for my kids, including travel sports. Social skills, teamwork, confidence, leadership - I have no regrets. Plus those travel sports years were a lot of fun for our family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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).

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.

So find the other ones. Deloitte had one about women leaders and sports. There have been countless studies on sports.

Did you study an instrument? What did you learn? Precision? Perfectionism?

There is a lot of work that does not require precision or perfectionism. It does require knowing how to be a team captain, playing on a team to win, motivating a team, coaching a team. You won’t learn this in science class.

[Anonymous]

This is part of what makes the U.S. unique - our individualism and work ethic is reflected in our love of sports. We enjoy competition, we enjoying leading.

It's also (for the most part) a more level playing field. You can be a kid with no wealth or connections, but can shine on the playing field/court and be a winner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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?

I dispute your premise. Achievement oriented is achievement oriented. The same expectations for sports participation is there for academic achievement. In fact, the two are explicitly linked if they want to play in high school or be recruited to college. The myth of the dumb jock is really limited only to a couple of sports.

[Anonymous]

Why is it never called racist when people put down “white” people whose kids play sports?

OP is absolutely being judgmental and not simply asking a question. Lots of kids of many backgrounds enjoy playing sports. As many others have said, there are a lot of type a people who are good at sports and academics. Many people feel strongly that being physically fit and developing teamwork, cooperation, and fueling a competitive nature provide solid skils to kids as they enter adulthood.

One kid’s interest in sports is no less enriching than another kid’s interest in music, theatre, or art.

The sports bashing gets so old.

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of hypercompetitive people. That’s all it is, truly. But even most of them realize their kid isn’t getting a scholarship or growing pro. Plenty of very successful people weren’t athletic, but I guess if your primary hope for your kid is to enter a bro-ish field (finance, etc.), it makes you feel like you’re setting him up to “belong.”

I have one athletic kid and one non-athletic kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I'm with you on this. I can't document how it will make my kids the most successful in their careers, but I guess that's not my primary goal for their childhoods.

[Anonymous]

There are so many colleges and universities in this country and quite a bit of diversity in their institutional priorities. If your kid is not sporty but instead very into math or music or whatever, there is a college/uni for them. And large state flagships have something for everyone. Don’t worry about the sporty kids if it’s not your thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I'm with you on this. I can't document how it will make my kids the most successful in their careers, but I guess that's not my primary goal for their childhoods.

That’s all people think about here. See also: threads complaining that if their child isn’t in compacted math by fourth grade, they can’t take MV calc in HS. omg, what will become of them then???