Using Sports to Teach Civic Values

Transcription

1 81(4), pp National Council for the Social Studies Teaching Social Studies with Sports Using Sports to Teach Civic Values Michelle Stacy Getty Images In the summer of 1891, an instructor at the Springfield, Massachusetts, Young Men s Christian Association (YMCA) Training College named James Naismith created a new game for boys to play indoors. Naismith attached two peach baskets to both ends of the gym. After devising some rules, Naismith invited some of his students to play the first game of basketball. Though American society today views basketball in terms of skill and physical fitness, Naismith saw basketball as a laboratory for the development of moral attributes. 1 More significantly than physical fitness or skills, Naismith believed basketball taught players values. His own mentor, Luther Halsey Gulick, instructor and superintendent at the Springfield YMCA from , also believed that sport and games taught values, especially cooperation and community building. At the YMCA, where both Gulick and Naismith worked, sports were connected to civic values, particularly targeting boys. Dr. James Naismith, inventor of basketball Sports as Civic Education Gulick and Naismith used sports to develop civic values by teaching children to play sports together and learn to value the good of the community. 2 They were part of a larger Progressive Era reform movement, which addressed problems such as urbanization, industrialization, and concerns that immigrants lacked an understanding of American democracy. Education reformers utilized schools as places of assimilation and training, where students learned how to become proper citizens. These reformers redefined civics and citizenship. They believed all people could be citizens, especially children, and envisioned a citizen s duties beyond simply voting. All people participated in their democracy through interactions with each other in public. This public interaction created a community, which became the foundation of civic space. Public education reformers believed school could assimilate immigrants and train children to be democratic citizens. Some reformers, such as John Dewey, encouraged students to actively participate in their communities. Dewey believed that public education, particularly social studies, was a means of social reform. Students needed to focus on contemporary issues in school, and student engagement shaped students into democratic citizens. The rhetoric of social education during this time also advocated that school should teach students the value of community and its importance over the individual. 3 Similar to Dewey s beliefs in experiential education, Gulick described how athletics taught boys values through the experience of playing. Gulick believed 224

2 Both photos courtesy of the Library of Congress Girls basketball team from 1910 (note the male coach, which contradicts Naismith s advice) Feb. 25, c Boys basketball team from 1910 (note the same coach as the girls team) Feb. 25, c sports taught boys to socialize democratically with each other. He argued that athletics encouraged spirit, loyalty and fair play among both participants and spectators, and he criticized physical educators who believed that physical fitness was the primary purpose of physical education and athletics. For Gulick, athletics taught civic values, not physical fitness. However, children needed guidance from adults to best develop these values. Like Gulick, Naismith believed that children needed to be guided and controlled. A formal coach needed to teach the values of basketball, because unorganized children could become unruly. According to Naismith, basketball instilled moral attributes such as cooperation, self-control, self-sacrifice, and sportsmanship; however, children only developed these attributes under properly conducted leadership. 4 In the appendix to his book on basketball, Naismith listed six categories developed by athletics: muscular development, skill, mental, emotions, social, and moral. Many of these attributes focused on non-physical characteristics. Civic values framed basketball s purpose. An Emphasis on Boys Gulick explained that team sports taught boys teamwork and cooperation, which placed the group above the individual. He was particularly interested in teaching boys these values, because he saw boys constantly moving in groups or gangs, as he called them. These groups Additional Resources Civic Connections to Athletics Lewis, Guy M. Adoption of the Sports Program, : The Role of Accommodation in the Transformation of Physical Education. Quest 12, no. 1 (1969): Pruter, Robert. The Rise of American High School Sports and the Search for Control: (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2013). Stacy, Michelle. Civic Sport: Using High School Athletics to Teach Civic Values in the Progressive Era. American Educational History Journal 42, no. 2 (2015): Gender and Athletics Bederman, Gail. Manliness and Civilization. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, Cahn, Susan K. Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Women s Sport. New York, N.Y.: The Free Press, Additional Teaching Ideas Additional lesson plans are included in: Jable, J. Thomas. High School Athletics: Evolution and Cultural Implications, OAH Magazine of History 7, no. 1 (Summer 1992): Social studies and English teachers can collaborate and create interdisciplinary lessons using: Bissinger, H.E. Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and a Dream. Boston, Mass.: Da Capo Press, September

3 had the potential to do good or evil, and Gulick saw the good as supporting the social order. 5 Boys needed to be trained to become part of the community, and sports provided opportunities to practice community building. Naismith also viewed teamwork as an element of a successful team. He explained that players learned to place the good of the team above one s personal ambitions. There is no place in basketball for the egoist. 6 Naismith challenged individualism by emphasizing that in order for a team to be successful, everyone needed to work together. As with the Progressive view of democracy, the group was more important than the individual. He connected civic values to basketball further in his explanation of sportsmanship. Naismith wrote that sportsmanship represented an understanding of a player s own rights and the respect of the rights of other players. Good sportsmen followed and upheld rules, and when they lost, they acted courteously and graciously. His reference to rights seemed to echo the emphasis on rights in the Bill of Rights, thus reinforcing the role of basketball in teaching civic values. Playing basketball taught young men the importance of choosing community over self and helped create a definition of civic life within the American community. This focus on community values reflected the Progressives fear that urban immigrant communities were not learning to become American. What about the Girls? Girls were noticeably absent from Gulick s and Naismith s descriptions of the values of sports. Gulick justified athletics in the context of male civic responsibility. He believed that boys traveled in gangs that disrupted society and required guidance on proper behavior. The assumption, then, was that boys cannot be trusted to be in control on their own, and their natural state is unruly. Gulick saw girls as naturally obedient and less prone to gang grouping. Thus, they did not need the same guid- ance. Naismith referred to girls interest in basketball, but he only described the girls experiences in relation to the boys. For example, the original rules Naismith created for boys became the default rules, and he saw them as too difficult for girls. He modified these rules to involve less running; so, soon after the game s development, boys and girls played basketball differently. Though girls did play sports, they were not expected to learn civic values. Girls were not viewed as civic participants, mainly because they did not have the right to vote. Since boys were seen as future voters, their citizenship training was deemed more important. Naismith s Teaching Activity explanation of separate games reflected the gendered view of separate spheres, which dominated the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in America and Europe. Though both boys and girls played sports, they did not play the same way. Even coaching was gendered separately as Naismith argued that a woman should coach girls, but not a man. A man could endanger the welfare of the girls. 7 Women and girls entered public spaces to play basketball, and therefore would be seen by spectators. In the private sphere of the home, men could protect women, but protection was difficult in public because of outside influences. Students can develop an understanding of the civic origins of school athletics by analyzing primary sources related to Gulick and Naismith (see page 227). With an increased emphasis on athletic scholarships for college and the lure of professional sports, students might not realize the foundational purposes of sports in schools. Moreover, students should understand the role of gender in athletics. Students can read excerpts from Gulick and Naismith and discuss several connections between sports and social studies. For example, students can analyze how Naismith connected the values of cooperation, self-sacrifice, and sportsmanship to democracy. Teachers can highlight how school sports advocates focused on values over skills. Furthermore, students can infer what Naismith believed about the role of basketball coaches for both boys and girls. Here, teachers and students can discuss how boys and girls were seen in the early twentieth century, focusing on how Gulick viewed boys and the role of sports in boys lives. This helps students with C3 Framework standard D2.His , which focuses on analyzing the ways in which the perspectives of those writing history shaped the history that they produced. In addition, students can discuss the impact of Gulick s views of sports on girls. Sports developed as civic training for boys, and girls experiences only emerged as a variation of the boys experiences. In other words, the athletic experience was constructed as male, and girls were only inserted into that existing construction. This discussion targets C3 Framework standard D2.His , which encourages students to analyze the relationship between historical sources and the secondary interpretations made from them. Students can finish their analysis by comparing and contrasting how high school sports are seen for boys and girls in the early twentieth century and today. By summarizing aspects of school athletics in the past, students address C3 standard D2.His , which allows them to integrate evidence from multiple relevant historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument about the past. Then, students can compare how athletics for boys and girls are similar or different to their arguments about athletics today. These discussions help students discover the civic and gendered foundations of sports in schools. 226

4 HANDOUT Student Primary Source Analysis Excerpt A: James Naismith, from Basketball: Its Origins and Development (pp. 170, ) Games have been called the laboratory for the development of moral attributes. I believe the following attributes can be developed by basketball. Co-operation, working with teammates without definite plans from the coach. Selfsacrifice, a willingness to put the good of the team above one s own personal ambition. Sportsmanship, the player s insistence on his own rights and his observance of the rights of others. [Regarding girls,]... there should be some competent woman directly in charge of the girls. Excerpt B: Luther Gulick, from Team Games and Civic Loyalty (p. 677) The largest single group activity of boys is in gangs, and one of the most wholesome forms of gang activity is in team athletic sports. The gang is a beneficent thing. It is a manifestation of group loyalty; but at present in most of our large cities the whole tendency of the gang is evil, because the major part of its activities is and almost must be against social order. It is the function of school athletics, when rightly conducted, to convert this gang instinct from evil to righteousness; to make its product social righteousness, rather than social unrighteousness, to convert into terms of actual living, intense interests and activities, the academic discussion which is so often given to them. Questions for Writing and Discussion 1. How does each of the following values Naismith described contribute to democracy? a. Cooperation b. Self-sacrifice c. Sportsmanship 2. What can you infer Naismith believed about the role of the basketball coach based on Excerpt A? 3. Explain who, according to Naismith, should coach, or be in charge, of girls. What does this imply about how Naismith viewed boys and girls in the early twentieth century? 4. Describe how Gulick views boys. 5. According to Gulick, what role do sports play in boys lives? 6. What impact might Gulick s views of sports have on girls? 7. Compare and contrast early twentieth-century and modern views of high school sports for boys and girls. Extended Activities 1. Research the impact of Title IX on school athletics. Write an essay in which you explain whether Title IX has led to equality in schools for boys and girls. 2. Analyze how sports are perceived in your high school. Conduct a survey and write up your findings for class. 3. Organize a debate in class about whether college athletes should unionize. C3 Standards Addressed in this Lesson Analysis Questions D2.His : Analyze the ways in which the perspectives of those writing history shaped the history that they produced. D2.His : Analyze the relationship between historical sources and the secondary interpretations made from them. D2.His : Integrate evidence from multiple relevant historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument about the past. Extended Activities D2.His : Use questions generated about multiple historical sources to pursue further inquiry and investigate additional sources. D : Present adaptations of arguments and explanations that feature evocative ideas and perspectives on issues and topics to reach a range of audiences and venues outside the classroom using print and oral technologies (e.g., posters, essays, letters, debates, speeches, reports, and maps) and digital technologies (e.g., Internet, social media, and digital documentary). D : Use disciplinary and interdisciplinary lenses to understand the characteristics and causes of local, regional, and global problems; instances of such problems in multiple contexts; and challenges and opportunities faced by those trying to address these problems over time and place. September

5 In order to preserve the dignity of the girls, men and girls should not interact. Therefore, boys and girls experienced sports differently. While coaches encouraged boys to play basketball to develop civic values, they encouraged girls to play basketball in moderation and in a calm fashion in order to protect women s physical wellbeing. Women best understood the health of other women; so female educators took control of girls basketball to monitor their activity. Basketball became one acceptable sport for girls because their mobility could be limited. Conclusion Thus, athletic programs were introduced to schools as part of citizenship training, not physical fitness training. Physical educators advocated for the inclusion of sports in schools by promoting the idea that sports taught students fairness and rules. 8 Physical educators utilized the rhetoric of civic values to justify adding physical education to the school curriculum during the early twentieth century. However, by using civic arguments, sports and athletics became a social movement, rather than a physical one. The coach played an important role in teaching the civic values Gulick and Naismith described. Both Gulick and Naismith valued the proper leadership of the coach, who could mold players into proper citizens. Schools and coaches provided guidance for athletes and facilitated experiences for boys to learn moral and civic values. The coach s role was one of citizenship educator, not fitness trainer. Coaches taught team building, cooperation, and teamwork as the foundation of their teams, not necessarily skill development. Just as the social studies teacher taught civic values to students, so did the coach. The emphasis of citizenship education on sports led to a long-term connection between social studies teaching and athletic coaching that still exists in society today. 9 Notes 1. James Naismith, Basketball: Its Origins and Development (Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1941; 1996). 2. Luther Halsey Gulick, Children of the Century, in Proceedings from the First Annual Playground Congress ed. A.L. Von der Osten (New York, 1907). 3. Ronald W. Evans, The Social Studies Wars: What Should We Teach the Children? (New York: Teachers College Press, 2004). 4. Naismith, Gulick, Team Games and Civic Loyalty, The School Review 14, no. 9 (November 1906): Naismith, Ibid., Guy M. Lewis, Adoption of the Sports Program, : The Role of Accommodation in the Transformation of Physical Education, Quest 12, no. 1 (1969): Michelle Stacy, The Historical Origins of Social Studies Teacher as Athletic Coach, American Educational History Journal 41, no. 2 (2014): Michelle Stacy is a social studies teacher at Mascoutah High School and recently completed a Ph.D. at St. Louis University. She can be reached at mstacy2@slu.edu. Social Studies and Exceptional Learners Darren Minarik and Timothy Lintner, NCSS Bulletin pp., 2016 Even as students with disabilities are more fully included in general education settings, there is a significant lack of resources on teaching social studies to these exceptional learners. This book fills that important gap. The driving force behind this publication, the authors write, was the limited number of empirical investigations and teacher practitioner articles currently available for social studies educators who want to address the needs of exceptional learners in their classrooms. Darren Minarik and Timothy Lintner bring together the latest research in special education and social studies in this easy-to-use guide for educators at all levels from elementary through high school. The authors provide background information on categories of disability, and laws driving disability services in schools, and recommend best practices for educating these exceptional students in an inclusive classroom setting. The topics discussed include instructional design and strategy, assessment, classroom management, and the use of appropriate technology. Minarik and Lintner offer carefully designed lesson plans for teaching economics, geography, history, and civics to exceptional learners at each of the elementary, middle, and high school levels. The lessons are aligned with the national social studies standards and the C3 Framework for social studies state standards. The authors also recommend important institutional and published resources that can assist with the education of exceptional learners. Item Price: NCSS Members $19.95 / List Price: $ or more copies receive a 20% discount off the non-member price. To order by phone, call You can also order online at org/store. To order by purchase order, please as attachments to ncss@pbd.com; fax to , or mail to NCSS Publications, P.O. Box , Atlanta, GA