Sport Does Not Build Character Essay

Among today’s society there are an abundance of critics of sport. They criticize the politics, money, and behavior among sport and how it can affect an individual. Most of those critics also believe that sport does not build character. I partially agree to this statement; however, I believe that sport can build character when it is practiced in an environment that thrives on and teaches character and moral development. Then the athlete has an opportunity to become morally developed and gives them situations to test their moral maturity. Personally, without sports I do not think that I would be as well versed in working together with people that I might not like personally, dealing with criticism in a positive manner, how to respond to adversity, and many other things. In the last three years alone, every coach that I have had has stressed character and lessons that we will use in our lives beyond sport above the sport itself. This may not be true for all, but for the sport environment that I have grown up in, I have been taught character …show more content…
If in the right setting, “[s]port teaches the value of practice and personal development besides providing a pseudo-environment, allowing for correction and modification within the bounds of “real life,” (Farley, 2000). Sport provides an opportunity for character development to occur. The athlete, if under the right circumstances, is taught the importance of character and right from wrong. It is then through the sport and situations that the athlete encounters through the sport, that the athlete has an opportunity to choose whether to react morally or not. It is not true for all athletes that their sport builds character. It is more likely and able to happen, however, if they are set up in the right circumstances and exercise their knew knowledge of morals correctly, moral and character development is possible in