Abstract
“Most people would disagree with me on this, but I don’t think we have a substance abuse problem in our country. We are just not developing strong kids that can make good choices”, said Thomas Collingwood. When I read the sport psychologist’s statement, my heart was filled with hope; I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, I knew there was hope for our future generation because I realized that though drug abuse was quite a debilitating issue among the youths, there lied hope just within our reach. As I went on to read Dr. Thomas’s article and saw the result his sports program First Choice was able to accomplish, I knew for sure that our children would see tomorrow if only we took sports for more than just a healthy fitness activity but acknowledged that sports could actually keep away our children from the trouble of; drug abuse, alcohol use, and other indulgences that they are exposed to. (Weiss M and R Fretwell 2005)
Discussion
Dr. Thomas’ phrase should be challenging to adults who think that it is not their responsibility to take charge of their children’s extra curriculum activities. His comments should make parents and caregivers see the need to reconsider their positions and offer much-needed guidance and support to their children. The comment actually made me acknowledge that though the role of keeping young people free from drug abuse is not easy, parents played the greater role in how our children grow up in ensuring that they provided structures and resources needed in their kid’s sporting activities. His comments made me realize that it would be unwise by the end of the day for any parent to leave their children under the mercy of the media where they learned that doing drugs is cool and fashionable, as they chase for provision of their children’s daily bread only to come home and find not only an empty stomach to feed but a kid to rehabilitate. Statistics show that African American teens have overall lower rates of drug abuse than any other population. The good results are attributed to African American form of parenting, but given the rate at which economic demands are increasing, good parenting will surely continue to be emphasized but will not be enough in days to come, and that is where sports come in.
Dr. Thomas’s First Choice program showed that as a result of an introduction to sports, there was a 60 percent decrease in multiple drug use, 60 percent decrease in alcohol use, 60 percent decrease in marijuana maybe it is important to note here that despite good parenting 13 percent of African American youths are reported having used marijuana. The results also showed that there was an increase of 23 percent increase in school attendance, and 20-27 percent increase in levels of physical fitness, and 10 percent increase in school grades. (Weiss M and R Fretwell 2005)
Schools, parents, and caregivers have to come together and provide kids with after-school activities that will make them preoccupied as opposed to just walking home from school with nothing preoccupying their minds. Keeping kids occupied is a great way to discourage them from acting out. Many students find themselves idle, and as a result, since they are just kids, it becomes hard for them to think of anything useful to do except, of course, for a few who eventually get influenced by others to indulge in crime when they have “ran out” of useful ideas. Sports have a way of bringing out the personality of a kid and expose positive elements that may have never been discovered. Naturally, when you, for example, give children a ball to play with, they are able to team up, chose their leaders, and basically manage the game even without your help. It is during sport that kids learn to be good managers of both times and any other available resource since the motivation to win makes them become creative and at the same time disciplined. As a result, you will find that when they are playing, they learn how to team up, keep time and follow the rules of the game. Subsequently, the same kids become responsible for their schoolwork; they are more motivated to set goals not only in the field but in their lives in general. (Weiss M and R Fretwell 2005)
Psychologically, sports help children boost their confidence and energy levels. It is during sports that kids are able to discover that though they might not be perfect in classwork, they are not good for nothing after all. They discover that they are as important as others, and once their morale is boosted, there is no space for drugs or any other destructive behavior in their lives. Sports also provide kids with role models either directly or indirectly. When a kid identifies with a football star, for example, they are motivated to aim higher for better performances and for a better tomorrow. That creates preoccupation that leads to better use of time and available resources and basically creates a source of hope for tomorrow.
It is important to note at this juncture that as good as sports might be for our children, resources are not available to support this extra-curriculum activity. The majority of the community members do not find sports as important, and as a result, there is a shortage of sports facilities needed for the kids. I agree at this point that sports facilities are expensive, but if the community recognized the importance of sports, they would actually find it less, less expensive than paying for the consequences of lack thereof. Parents and teachers would realize that there would be less falling out of school, fewer fights and vandalism, fewer disciplinary cases, less rehabilitation, etc. The state would also realize that there would be fewer juvenile cases, fewer police deployed to deal with kids, and fewer future high tech crime levels since it is the same children who develop to become dangerous criminals when they grow up.. (Kay Porter 2003)
The community would be surprised to learn that many youths prefer getting involved in various sporting activities to watching the games being played by others. A study done in the UK showed that two-thirds of teenagers say playing would be better than watching others play, but often lack of resources prevented them from joining any type of sporting activity. During that research, there emerged a great demand for non-mainstream sports where kids asked for the provision of other types of games other than the same old ones. 36 percent said that they would like games such as archery, canoeing, fencing, cycling, judo, and few more others to be included in their extra curriculum timetable in order to motivate them to play. Human resources are also a major challenge to kids sports. Due to the economic pressure being experienced in our times, much-qualified personnel is opting to join clubs where they will earn a living as opposed to volunteering in school and community sporting clubs. This is posing a great challenge to our kids since they, at the end of the day, need a couch to direct them so that they can improve their natural or acquired skills. As much as we would like to plead with the qualified members of the community to volunteer their services for the community good, it would also be prudent to dig deeper into our pockets and employ some of them. This will ensure that our children are under supervision while at the field, which by the way, can serve as a drug marketplace. Besides having qualified personnel since our kids are not getting involved with sports mainly for competing purposes though that is also important, schools and the communities should have a system where the older ones couch the younger ones, and this would go a long way in ensuring that sporting activities do not stop for lack of personnel. Just to add on to this point, parents should also take upon themselves the responsibility of coaching their children at home. When all the stakeholders get involved in this, we can be sure that our children will be safe, and we can be assured of a future; remember, children are our future. It is them that we leave our thriving business, successful organization, firm political parties, steady social systems, including our beautiful homes. (Kay Porter 2003)
Conclusion
Drug abuse is real in our country. Research carried out by the Monitoring the Future Results on Adolescent Drug Use showed that between 1992 and 2006, the use of marijuana increased from 12 percent to 18 percent among high school seniors, 8 percent to 14 percent among 10th graders, and 4 percent to 7 percent among 8th graders. Though these percentages have increased and are expected to continue increasing, we have learned in this paper that it is possible to alleviate this problem. This paper has shown that sporting activities will do our community a great deal of good if we commit and bring our efforts together. We have seen that sporting activities are everybody’s responsibility right from home, schools, and district levels all the way to State levels. We have also seen the importance of providing resources involved and that despite the price being high to pay, it is not measurable to the consequences of refusal or lack of provision. Lastly, we have seen that games do not have to be expensive since anybody, including our senior brothers and sisters, can help the younger ones, and together we will keep our kids out of trouble. (University of Michigan 2007)
References
Kay Porter PhD, (2003), the Mental Athlete, Human Kinetic.
University of Michigan, (2007) Monitoring the Future National Results on Adolescent Drug Use: Overview of Key Findings 2006.
Weiss M and R Fretwell (2005) the parent-couch/child-athlete, relationship in youth sport, Research Quarterly for Exercise and sport.