Schools need sport to support education

Schools need sport to support education

Simon Marcus Gower, Executive Principal, High/Scope Indonesia School,
Jakarta

Children love to play and it is right and appropriate that we
give them opportunities to play. But we may guide them in their
play and they may learn of virtuous traits and conduct through
play. Sports create the ideal framework from which meaningful
learning and play may take place. The lessons for life that may
emerge from meaningful play are abundant and significant.

Playing sport together, children may learn life skills that
will prove beneficial throughout school years and beyond. For
example, children participating in sports can quickly learn
teamwork, taking and sharing responsibility, coping with success
and failure, wins and losses, and generally -- through the
interactions that sport creates -- develop social skills.

There is also one further life skill that may emerge and be
nurtured through participation in sport. In some sense it may not
be the most obvious of traits to be associated with notions of
play but there can be little doubt that discipline can be
developed through exposure to, and the playing of, sport.

Many parents are concerned about how to give their children
discipline but discipline can and should be something learned
through application; learned by experiencing tasks and challenges
that require one learns and practices discipline. Discipline is
not merely about punishment, it is rather more closely linked to
learning for life.

The following two instances exemplify how sports can enhance
notions of self discipline and control. These are notions that do
not have to be imposed but may emerge as a natural consequence of
realizing that through discipline better results may be achieved.
These two instances are of two children of the same age
participating in a team sport in Jakarta that sets up opportunity
after opportunity for them to learn of interdependence and
independence.

The first child could be observed running around the playing
field in a generally aimless fashion. His powers of concentration
showed themselves to be consistently weak and he was obviously
getting bored with the game. Ultimately, his lack of self control
made him a liability to the team. If the ball came his way, he
was late in getting to it because he was neither attentive nor
disciplined.

The other child meantime was showing strength in his powers of
concentration; born out of his greater discipline. He was not one
for recklessly running around the field. He knew his position and
dutifully stuck to it. Consequently he was, throughout the game,
an asset to the team. His playing was both positive and
disciplined.

So, what was the difference between these two children? Both
were getting great opportunities to play and learn but one was
showing himself to be much more competent than the other. It is
quite likely; however, that the first child could prove every bit
as capable and competent as the second but he simply had not had
the same kind of training and discipline to accompany his play.

The first child had evidently just been allowed to go out into
the playing field and simply play. This kind of total freedom
was, very clearly, doing the child no good. Total freedom can and
often will lead to a state of chaos that does not nurture
development.

The second child had, instead, been given the opportunity to
play but had also been guided towards certain parameters within
which this playing could take place. He had been given a focus
for his play; a focus that helped the play to be more meaningful
for him and ultimately more successful.

Of course, success is not always a prerequisite of play but
few would doubt that if you are able to play and enjoy success
then the play itself becomes even more enjoyable and more
memorable. Naturally, it is appropriate for children to be given
freedom to play, discover and explore for themselves but we
should be cautious to introduce them to acceptable boundaries of
and for their freedom. By doing this we are introducing ideas of
discipline they may intrinsically and intuitively develop.

Sports provide a perfect means and series of opportunities to
introduce and then have children internalize ideas of discipline.
Every sport has certain rules that need to be adhered to.
Children can quickly comprehend and come to terms with such rules
and see their value. In a real sense, they can come to see that
if you follow the rules, if you play by the rules, you are more
likely to succeed.

Sports can, then, generate opportunity after opportunity for
children to learn and in turn get a step ahead in their
education. More and more, educators are coming to the realization
that a good education is not only about academic skills and
success. Increasingly there is the acceptance and targeting of
the aim to focus on much needed life skills.

Increasingly it is being recognized that education is not so
much about the knowledge that you are able to retain (or
memorize) but is more about developing the ability to use
knowledge. The complexity of our world is such that we have to
accept and admit limitations to our knowledge but the ability to
gain, act on and utilize knowledge is far more valid and relevant
to today's educational needs.

Participation in sports sets up the possibility of learning
life skills, through interactions and playing with and alongside
peers. The value of sports for educational purposes should not,
then, be underestimated. But often in Indonesia and its schools
sports are only vaguely considered. Sports are often only seen as
a secondary consideration and even consistently viewed as extra-
curricula activities.

But sports can bring a condition of "healthy in body, healthy
in mind". Of course, being active in sports is likely to benefit
physical well being but also being active in sport allows for the
development of the mind too. Sports should not then be
undervalued for their educational benefits. Sports should in fact
be well supported in schools and integrated into an overall
package of holistic education that will help children to develop
their skills across a multiple range of intelligences.

The opinions expressed above are personal.