![]() By organized I mean broken into leagues, conferences, and divisions, with adult coaches and parents sitting or standing around watching. My generation was also born before play was organized, which was no small break. Having been born toward the end of the Depression, ours was a low population cohort, and consequently we went through none of the torture of getting into good colleges that generations after us continue to have to endure on the contrary, these schools pursued us. The males among us were too young for the Korean War and too old for the Vietnam War. We have lived through 60 years of unprecedented prosperity. My boyhood took place during the middle 1940s and early 1950s, and I have only recently come to realize what a lucky generation mine has been. The Wall Street Journal makes no mention of what I suspect may be a chief cause for the slackening of participation in athletics among the young: the organization of play by adults. ![]() In an odd way, life was richer without these gadgets, for then, kids could fall back on a toy that was much less expensive and vastly more educational. Many of these possibilities come bearing screens: computers, smart phones, PlayStations, iPads, and other toys from what is now nonchalantly referred to as digital culture. Kierkegaard, who isn’t quoted in the article, spoke of being “drowned in the sea of possibility,” and it is true that kids today are faced with a great many more possibilities for their leisure time than they were 30 or more years ago. “Experts cite everything from increasing costs to excessive pressure on kids in youth sports to cuts in school physical-education programs.” “The causes of declines in youth sports aren’t clear,” runs a characteristic paragraph. A girl from an athletic family gives her reason for abandoning the track team in her high school in Ohio - too time-consuming - and high-school athletic directors blame video games for the decreasing participation in sports. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal was headlined “Youth Participation Weakens in Basketball, Football, Baseball, and Soccer.” In solid journalistic fashion, the article went on to document the decrease in sales in sports equipment, the many new interests competing for the time and attention of the young, and the opinions of various experts in health and physical education. ![]()
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