Sport, Education, and the Meaning of Victory Essay examples

Sport, Education, and the Meaning of Victory Sport was included in ancient educational systems because it was thought to promote aretà ª or human excellence which could be applied to almost any endeavor in life. The goal of most modern scholastic athletic programs might be better summed up in a word: winning. Is this a sign that we have lost touch with the age-old rationale for including sport in education? I argue that it need not be by showing that we value winning precisely for the virtues associated with it. I then take Platos traditional parts of aretà ª: piety, sophrosunà ª, courage and justice and show how they are manifest in modern athletic ideals of self-knowledge, discipline, courage and justice. To the extent that scholastic†¦show more content†¦The best way to tell is to ask a simple yet crucial question in the style of Socrates: What is Winning? One reason this question is seldom asked may be that, on the face of it, the answer is absurdly obvious. Sports, after all, are essentially sets of rules constructed by human beings, and winning is clearly defined within each of these sets of rules. Analytically, a winner is simply the athlete or team who accumulates the most points, crosses the finish line first, jumps the highest, throws the farthest, or whatever superlative the sport designates. The definition of winning in sport is clear and quantitatively measurable — unlike winning in other areas of life, such as love or happiness, where success is not so easily measured. Perhaps this precision is one of the reasons we value an athletic victor so much, but certainly there is more to it. Ben Johnson crossed the finish line first in the 100 meter dash at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, but few consider him the winner of the race. Even victors who win fair and square sometimes see the moral victory and the lions share of admira tion awarded to a losing competitor. Our conception of a winner runs much deeper than the ability to fulfill the analytic definition of victory in sport. In Homers Iliad (XXIII, 823-880), there is an account of a foot race at Patroclus funeral games in which the goddess Athena chooses her favorite Odysseus as the winner of the race and ensures his victory byShow MoreRelatedThe Fascists’ Control of Italy and their Social and Economic Policies1398 Words   |  6 Pagesargued some of these were of more value to the Fascist domination than others. The social policies implemented by the Fascists secured their control of the lives of every person, young or old, in Italy in particular through education and the Dopolavoro. Education was heavily manipulated to only teach the youth a positive view of the Fascists. It became necessary for all teachers and lecturers to swear loyalty to Mussolini. 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