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A School Without Athletics Should Be Avoided At An Educational System

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A school without athletics should be avoided in an educational system. Education is the training of a student’s character; that is the knowledge, skills, and habits that are passed down from one generation to another for the full development of the mind and the body. George Roche, former President of Hillsdale College, addresses the matter of education by stating, “Education is precisely the preservation, reinforcement and transmission of values from one generation to the next. Its tools include reason, tradition, and moral concern and introspection...” These values that Roche states are developed through the training of the full person, both his character of mind and character of body.
Because education is the development of both a …show more content…

Athletics can teach students the values that may not be emphasized enough in the class room. They teach students values of mutual respect, self respect, honor, duty, responsibility, endurance, discipline, and even bravery. Athletics is not only the physical training of the body, but also the development of virtues and values which build the individual’s character, and a sound body, which is necessary for a complete education.
The Greeks, the founding fathers of western civilization, understood this. The Greek classical educational systems helped children fully develop their mind and body as a whole. The Spartans developed values such as hard work, responsibility, and focus and virtues such as honor, humility and respect through intense training of the body. Russell Kirk, a classical historian, stated: “Therefore we yield to the seers, the prophets and poets and philosophers of Greek tradition, as authorities, because without their guidance we would wander hungry in a dark world.” Here, Kirk emphasizes the debt that educators owe to the great minds of history for the substantial amount of knowledge passed down from one generation to the next to develop the mind. Knowledge, skills, and habits valued by the ancient Greeks still hold today and are mimicked for development of the body as well. The classical model of education itself began with the Greeks, with

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