JOIN USParenting | Why all children must play sport at school, not just the gifted
Where does the 2016 movie Dangal stand in your scheme of things? In your view, is it a movie about parental sacrifice? Or about producing champions? At one level, it is perhaps both of these as well being something of an inspiration.
In addition, there is a certain romance to the narrative of the selfless parent denying himself and going out on a limb to give his children a leg up. Years later, the children vindicate the parent’s faith by … winning! Dangal chooses to tell this oft-told tale in the context of sport.
For children, indulging in sports probably signifies a release from drudgery. Reams have been written of schoolchildren fondly gazing out at the playground as the teacher droned in the classroom.
That sport is characterised by spontaneity and driven by instincts as opposed to academics which demands preparation and thought is probably its most attractive feature. And that’s why most children take to sport without a second thought.
Excelling at it of course and doing so into adulthood is another matter altogether since sport too then comes into the preparation and thought realm.
Now the larger question: where does the pursuit of sports figure in your scheme of things? Is it only an avenue to keep physically fit? Could it teach you things that academics cannot? Is it perhaps a possible career option?
The age of the professional
The gradual advent of the professional sportsperson and their complete takeover of sports at the highest levels has been an important development since the end of World War II. More so in the last half-a-century. In the early 1950s, Roger Bannister balanced medical studies and his pursuit of athletics, the highpoint of which was him becoming the first person to run a mile in less than four minutes in 1954. He soon gave up athletics, choosing to focus on medicine.
In the early 1960s, the legendary off-spinner, EAS Prasanna took a hiatus from playing Test cricket since he believed that qualifying as an engineer was of more consequence, more so after the death of his father. Degree earned, he returned to cricket and reached its top echelons. He pursued a regular engineering career alongside, often faced with the unenviable option of having to choose one over the other.
That sports have had to be professionalised is, therefore, a positive development. Stories abound of amateur sportspersons having to drop off the radar when the more prosaic matter of earning a living entered the picture. When sports itself was able to provide a living, it was a lot easier to pursue instead of trying to balance it with a day job.
Sport in the Indian school curriculum
In a different realm, there is the matter of the tortured relationship that the Indian education system has had with sport. The memo about the ancient Greek view of sport being a key component of education never reached most Indian schools. Sport in most schools therefore exists on the fringes and the regular sports periods are akin to free time and not taken very seriously. And yet, schools are not blind to the snob value of sport. Winning trophies and medals is almost always a big deal and resources are devoted to the pursuit of those shiny metal things.
But the pursuit of medals through team-based sports or individual sports is usually after school hours where those who can make it to the teams or the athlete with talent gets special attention and coaching with a view towards bringing glory to the school. This arena is largely the domain of the gifted with little place for the mediocre or the laggards.
The strange place that sport occupies in the Indian educational system now co-exists with the larger societal narrative of the professional sportsperson as a role model to be emulated. With the regular educational system blind to the idea of treating sport in the same vein as Science or Math, a new model has therefore become immensely popular throughout the nation: the private sports academy.
The rise of the sports academy
Across the length and breadth of the land, sportspersons with or without coaching credentials impart skills in a variety of sports with the enthusiastic support of parents keen on seeing their children pursue sport and perhaps even become professional sportspersons. Children have taken to these academies with a great deal of enthusiasm.
At the school, teachers look askance at sport goading students to focus on academics. At the academy, many parents vicariously seek to live out their thwarted dreams through their children, the emphasis being on winning. At both places, the role of sport in helping the student learn teamwork, concentration, focus et al through sport, is forgotten.
The net result is that the inherent value of sport is devalued as a result. Since sports is not integrated into the school curriculum, the emphasis in school remains on identifying the naturally talented individual and getting him or her to win. And the same state of affairs more or less prevails at the level of the academy.
Without demeaning the contribution of these academies, it must be borne in mind that the sports academy is a business venture that will flourish when it delivers on its promise of producing winners. Hence, while they may number many enthusiastic children among their ranks, the model demands that it focus on a few likely winners who will then become the flag-bearers of the academy.
The value of sport for the not-so-talented or the hard worker who is perhaps not so blessed with natural skills has been forgotten.
If this same yardstick were applied to Science or Math and teachers only focussed on the gifted with a view to making them mathematicians or scientists, would that be acceptable? Definitely not. Society believes that Science and Math should be a part of everyone's educational foundation. But not so with sport, even though sports can contribute in many ways to an individual's well-being and mental make-up.
Medal-winning is all very well, but a place for sports in the educational system that focuses on the softer skills that sports can impart is perhaps the greater need.
The need for a sporting culture
The professional sportsperson is an ideal who cannot but inspire. But the combination of talent, determination and hard work that goes into the making of the professional will necessarily be a rare occurrence.
But if the sport were integrated into the curriculum in the same vein as Science or Math, the benefits are likely to be manifold.
A true sporting culture will, in addition to throwing up the occasional high-level sportsperson, also produce a legion of knowledgeable fans who will be in a better position to understand the sport and its pursuit. As it stands today, the average fan is a fickle individual hell-bent on his or her team winning. Appreciation of the nuances of sport is largely absent. This attitude is the outcome of the lack of understanding of the place and value of sport in the life of the individual and in a healthy society’s composition.
It is the creation of a healthy sporting culture that should be the aspiration. It will unlock the value of sport for everyone instead of restricting it to the talented few.
(Karthik Venkatesh is a Bengaluru-based editor and writer)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.