The State of Youth Sports & American Education
A compilation of great content on schools, learning, youth sports, and the experiences that matter most for our kids.
Hello Bar-setters!
This week I want to bring you a compilation of great thoughts on what schools don’t teach our kids, what the largest problems and best solutions are for the American education system, and the youth sports industrial complex.
How Youth Sports Turned Toxic
Many, if not most, of the best people I know will all point to their experiences in competitive sports as the most formative of their life. Sports are a microcosm of life. This is where young people learn to commit, persist, put the team first, and so much more. This is where we made our closest bonds and found our greatest mentors. But something has changed, leaving many parents like me to wonder whether committing to sports will be good or bad for our children and our families.
Michael Lewis, the author of Money Ball, The Big Short, The Blind Side, and so many other great books digs into the new “Youth Sports Industrial Complex” in an amazing Audible Original, Playing to Win. It’s free with an Audible subscription and I highly recommend it!
What Schools Aren’t Teaching
The Free Press released a flurry of great content this past week about schools. First, there is a podcast debate on how to fix American education.
Next, they released a six part series titled, What Schools Didn’t Teach Us. All six were wonderful, but my favorite comes from the fantastic Matthew Crawford:
If you enjoy these ideas, check out my book. Also related, way back in 2016 I wrote an article titled The Exploitation of Youth Athletes.
Thank you for reading and sharing.
Carry the fire!
Shane Trotter