Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee

“Are Competitive Sports Bad for Kids?” Mar 31, 2011 | By Rachel Nelson, Web, 20

W In the same article by Anne Josephson(15 Reasons Competitive Sports Are Good For Kids(That have nothing to do with winning) says this exact thing. She also says it gives kids a healthier mind.With a healthier mind you can do a lot more with your everyday life, when it comes to grades, attitude, etc. In her article it also says that kids who played sports for their school were less likely to drop out of school because of education issues.This may be because not only that there minds are healthy, but that many sports are run through the schools themselves, so if they skip school or get bad grades they literally can not play.Another detail to support this is, Kirk Mango believes that with obesity on the rise it seems fitting--pun intended--for more kids to play sports and get into shape. Almost 19 million kids, ages 2-19 are obese. If all kids play competitive sports there would be a lot less obesity in this world. Youth sports could solve a problem that many people

Sports weren’t introduced until the late 1940’s. High school sports were introduced after World War II to bring students together and have students want to come to school (“Gerard”). They were introduced for life skills and communication. They were supposed to be taught at a young age. (“Friedman”). In 2013, approximately 7.7 million students played high school sports (“Gerard”). This was found to be the starting point for young athletes.

With each throw to home plate he felt a little bit more pain. Instead of resting him Mark Hyman sent his son out to pitch the very next game. Stories like these are not uncommon with anyone who child has played on any team. Over the last few years, adults have taken over kid’s sports. Many children under the age fifteen required medical treatment for sports injuries and nearly half of them are only the result of simple overuse. The quest to turn children into superstar’s are taken a toll on their

The purpose of this paper is to argue the fact that youth sports are not becoming too intense. After reading the New York Times article I decided to pick this topic and argue against this theory because as a division one athlete I have my own opinions. I picked three sources which can back up and prove that sports being too intense is very much your own opinion.

In “Children Need to Play, Not Compete”, Jessica Statsky talks about the different kinds of students and their approach and mental and physical ability and pressure towards Sports. Statsky differentiates between two sets of children who have physical and mental attributes and towards sports. She gives a few examples and changes that have taken place in the past decades in the sports scenario. When overzealous parents and coaches impose adult standards on children's sports, the result can be activities that are neither satisfying nor beneficial to children. She further states that children should not be pressurized or forced upon their performance and improvement rather they should first be given a chance to understand the sport, their potential and the way in which they develop

In Weak Shall Inherit the Gym Reilly helps this statement by saying “All of a sudden 120 lbs Joe was hit with a ball, and when he turned to see who it was that threw it, he saw little 83 lb Melvin, who was mostly smile.” This just shows that even the weakest and smallest children on that gym floor can have their confidence boosted with just one throw of a ball. The bigger kids had to get up top somehow right? Smaller kids just have to try harder and they could be like the “bigger kids”. Children may even start to think that if they get the wins from games handed to them the easy way, that everything will be given to them the easy way. Even when they grow they will try the easy way of winning and getting what they want in

The book Maniac Magee, the author Jerry Spinelli, Amanda Beale one of the character’s from Maniac Magee is smart. She is smart because she had many books in a soup case so she could read. Amanda was black, but black people didn’t have great schools like white did, but she was still smart even though white had better school. One way the author developed a character trait is Amanda was smart to put all here books it soup case and have it in alphabetical order. This was smart of idea because she can find out where all her books

When the kids are taught that they actually believe in what the teacher says and instead of focusing on school work and more realistic goals they just focus on becoming athletes. That’s when then they no longer go to school to get proper education, they come to join a sport and try to get scouted.

Why does this happen? These young high school boys joined this sport to better themselves, learn discipline and

because kids didn’t train as hard as they do now and the game has sped up

In the book " Maniac Magee" Maniac/Jeffrey shows courage by being friends with a boy that was originally been mean. In the beginning of the book Mars Bar ripped Amanda's book and pushed Jeffry around, but by the end of the story Mars Bar cares about Jeffry and makes him go live at Amanda's house. Jeffry is also courageous by going intoFinsterwaldd's backyard to save someone and even sat on the front steps toFinsterwaldd's house. These acts are courageous because Mars Bar was not nice, andFinsterwaldd's front step and backyard are scary to the other kids.

Many students may be competitive, but there are a few kids who play for the fun of the game. Even though the team doesn’t win all the time, they sure do push

But that is not the only part of the argument other people think that they are good for kids because it pushes kids to their best effort and after reading this if you aren't already on competitive sports for kids maybe you will be after this.

In the story, Maniac Magee, the author, Jerry Spinelli, developed the character Amanda Beale to be devoted to her books.