American children today are growing up in a very different world than their parents did thirty years ago. The generation of kids that is maturing today has been taught about the benefits of individuality, and has little concept of what it takes to work as a team. Even in the classroom, teachers are repeatedly shying away from assigning group projects, preferring instead to let each student be responsible for his or her own education. That’s all well and good, to a point, but it completely wastes a valuable teaching tool: teaching kids about shared responsibility within a group.

Shared responsibility is an American institution, and it is ingrained within our Constitution and in our political system of representative government. How is a child supposed to grow up to be a well-rounded American citizen if he or she does not have any experience with bearing that kind of responsibility? The answer, of course, is to teach those kids to play sports.

Sports have always had their place in American society, and a great way to harness sports as a teaching tool is to instruct children about the team concept behind sports. For example, in a game of basketball, if one of the five players on the court fails in his job, and neglects to guard his man, the entire team is let down, and the entire team fails. No player wants to be responsible for his team failing like that, and children can understand that they must work together in order to achieve success, or risk the ignominy of failure.

The importance of teaching children about shared responsibilities cannot be understated. Children must be taught these concepts while they are young and impressionable, and this will allow them to better adjust to the realities of the world around them. Many of them will later go on to take jobs in companies where they will have to work alongside their co-workers on various projects, and if they are unable to rise to the occasion and accept the responsibilities that they have to the group, their group will fail, and that may have repercussions for the entire company, and perhaps even that person’s job. To avoid this entire negative scenario, all that really needs to be done is for young children to be taught about recreational team sports, with a focus on the team concept.

No one can definitively say that kids will always grasp the importance of the team concept right away, so it is important that as they grow, children are continually exposed to team sports. Constant repetition of the values of teamwork and responsibility will result in children who are more well-rounded and better able to contribute productively in society.

In this day and age of changing social situations and technological advances, it is important that we as Americans stay true to our core beliefs and pass them on to our children. One of the best ways to instruct children in the values that make our country great is to teach them about sports and the underlying team concept.

Author Bio: I write for TIR Massage Stone about hot stone massage and massage stone therapy including hot and cold applications.

Category: Sports
Keywords: sports,american society,instruct children,teaching tool