Why Kids Should Not Be In Sports

With somewhere between 10-15 million-youth playing organized sports, it seems like something kids should do. They stay active, build friendships, learn, etc. There can be many positive reasons why kids should participate in youth sports. Due to the many negative reasons, children should not play competitive sports. Carol Mithers writes, “Between 30 million and 45 million American kids participate in some form of athletics each year. With fewer parents comfortable letting their children play outside unsupervised, it's no wonder that organized youth sports are more popular than ever. But that world has changed in troubling ways.” Students should not play in competitive sports because sports aren’t cheap, they are time-consuming, injuries can occur, and children can lose interest in sports. First of all, some people say sports are cheap and if you cannot afford it there is scholarships, but

We are seeing fewer and fewer pick-up games between kids on the playgrounds and more organized school and travel sports teams. And while our kids spend their nights traveling to and from games, they are NOT spending that time on the subjects they are presumably in school to learn in the first place and which will prepare them for the rest of their lives. While sports may strengthen bodies and instill confidence, they don’t prepare kids for the educational rigor of college and life beyond. Put plainly, it feels like sports have somehow edged our school in importance. For a nation battling mediocre test scores, alarming college drop-out rates, and diminishing employability in the world market, this is a big deal.” Children are spending too much time on sports and not enough on their schoolwork, chores, or other important things in their lives. Some children are failing their classes and not paying attention because they are too busy focusing on sports. It’s even worse if they are playing multiple