Sports in America - The Failure of Our Educational System

James A. Michener might be a name familiar to those of you who like to read - he’s written many fine books, including ‘Sayonara’, ‘Hawaii’, and ‘Texas’ for examples…  But one book that I read long ago sticks in my mind.  (which, of course, is the goal of any good author!)

He detailed in Sports in America how our educational system brought us up with sports that very few will ever continue to play once past High School or College.  Oh, we’ll have the occasional company softball game… but sports that people can play for the rest of their lives are generally not taught in our educational system.  A few are, there are the occasional Golf or Tennis classes being taught.

As might be rather obvious from this website - I’ve gotten lucky with learning a sport that I can practice the rest of my life… I’ve been rather fortunate in having had the chance to start learning Judo while still in High School, and it has definitely been good to me (health wise) over the years.  But Judo isn’t for everyone.

I really don’t have any suggestions… other than perhaps to look into sports that are not quite so team oriented.  After all - who wants to gather up a dozen of their friends each time they want to work out?

But as a society, our problems are even worse… according to the latest news reports that I’ve seen, 17% of our children are obese!  Did you know that only a few states now require physical education in elementary, middle, and high school students?  That’s a sad commentary… isn’t it?

There was clearly a time long ago when physical education wasn’t nearly so important… after all, our grandparents probably had to milk the cows, feed the chickens, and so forth… but today - kids drive or take the bus - and when home, sit in front of the T.V. or a computer.

Today, a sport such as Judo, or any other sport that you can do for the rest of your life, is more important than ever.  Have you found yours?