Lessons of the Locker Room: The Myth of School Sports

"Sports builds character" is a truism rarely questioned by Americans. Most parents encourage their children to take part in competitive athletics, and organized team sports are available to young people from the early years of grammar school through high school and college. Occasionally some disturbing incidents cast doubt on the assumption that sport is necessarily beneficial to character development: a serious injury on the playing field due to gratuitous violence, drug use, gambling, or sexual misconduct. Whole communities have wondered how organized team sports, supposedly designed to build character, can lead to such drastic deviations from the imagined ideals.

In Lessons of the Locker Room, anthropologist Andrew W. Miracle Jr. and sociologist C. Roger Rees explore the fascinating underpinnings of school sports and examine the evidence to support the prevailing assumption that sport is an ennobling experience. They find that participation has little effect on positive character development. Far from building model citizens, their research shows that competitive team sports may foster selfish motives and antisocial behavior. Rather than learning self-sacrifice and dedication, athletes often pick up the message that "winning isn't everything - it's the only thing."