The stats speak for themselves (obesity rates are very high, there's no reason to believe troubled kids are overrepresented among the obese, and research shows sports programs can improve self-esteem and socialization in children).
You seem to be particularly hung up on the notion of kids not "accepting" another - there's no reason to believe this. If coaches do their jobs (and they usually do) they foster camaraderie that includes everyone.
I was quiet as a kid, and was never left out in a sports team. The anecdote pissing contest is useless. Show me data.
Your qualification of coaches who do their jobs is exactly the problem. Kids are cruel, and adults are negligent. Not always, but far too often.
I was also the quiet kid who did not attract negative attention, but I saw it then and I see it now.
You're completely ignoring the marginal kids. It's not about obesity, and that's not what I was responding to initially. You used the word "generally", and that's fine. But you're overlooking a significant cohort, and your dismissive attitude is 100% reminiscent of the crappy administrators and coaches who play their roles in the problem.
What sports do you coach? And do you, perchance, also teach 7th grade history? I feel like we might have met before.
> I don't believe you have, honestly, met children.
Stop projecting.
> Kids are cruel, and adults are negligent. Not always, but far too often.
Broadly, no. This is something that is taught. We don't live in an amoral wasteland, and playing sports is not Lord of the Flies. 99% of the time is spent playing, and not only do parents watch the games, many hang around for practice. I don't know if you've ever witnessed either, but they are not comprised of rounds of piling on one kid. This is not unique to any one sport, it's basically ubiquitous.
> You're completely ignoring the marginal kids.
Their being marginal is one of the points I made, i.e. they don't comprise the bulk of inactive and/or obese kids. And yet I did not ignore them: sports can help troubled kids, another point I made.
If there are those for whom sport participation is inappropriate, that is neither here nor there, it has NO BEARING on what I said. I made no blanket prescription that every kid must/ought be involved, but I'm highly skeptical of notions that large swaths of kids should abstain from sports on the conceit that "some kids might be meanies".
> your dismissive attitude
Your projecting again. Fuck off. Can you keep track of a discussion at all?
Sports can be beneficial for both a) the inactive, and b) those who might exhibit signs of mental disorders. Barring individual cases, it's completely uncontroversial to suggest it's an option that ought to be taken seriously.
> What sports do you coach? And do you, perchance, also teach 7th grade history? I feel like we might have met before.
Seems like you are nowhere near grounded in reality.
You haven't shown me any data like I asked, so there's nothing left to say. Content yourself with your specious anecdotes, believe what you want to believe. You don't care about what's true.
