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Drug Use a Major Problem Facing Sports:
Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow
Written by: Kim
Nygaard (biography).
Peninsula Heritage School
We all spend time with either positive
people or negative people. I ask, if
who you spend time with controls the
way you live life…do you spend
time with people who complain all the
time, or people who strive to come up
with a positive solution to a problem?
When teaching, I look at each child
and where their level of self confidence
is. “Play fair, but play tough”
is said to be the key to athletic success.
Becoming a top athlete in a sport takes
mental prep and learning how to win
and how to lose, and most important,
feeling self-confident most of the time.
The pressure to win.
Young athletes have a hard time keeping
up with the mindset that seems to be
“the earlier the better”
or “more is better.” When
growing up in the ‘70s and ‘80s,
it was good enough if you were an average
student and average athlete, because
that meant you were a “well rounded”
person and could handle academic achievement
and personal fulfillment. Everyone participated
in school sports; sometimes you would
win, and sometimes you would lose. We
learned that losing is not a “BAD”
word but a word needed to improve performance.
Isn’t it true that we learn from
our losses more than we learn from our
wins? We didn’t have academic
tutors or personal trainers, or even
specialty coaches to help us with our
skills. With the help of our coaches,
we mastered all skills to our best level
and were quite satisfied. The average
child was “OK.”
Now it seems that in this highly competitive
century, the average child struggles
to keep ahead of all the “outside,
personal” pressures put on them.
The media shows the professional athletes
who take steroids or other drugs to
help their performances. Sometimes the
“hype” seems interesting,
and young children will turn to these
drugs. Despite the intense efforts to
eliminate these drugs, they still are
becoming widespread in athletes of all
ages.
We all have a huge job, be it a teacher,
a coach, or a parent to make sure that
we keep the spirit alive in children.
I’m a parent of two teenagers
who are involved in sports, and I find
myself tangled in that competitive web.
Being an athlete myself, and competing
on the high school, college, state,
national, and olympic level and having
the successes that I had, I want my
children to be able to experience the
same. I know when to back down and when
to push harder in their sports.
My daughter had extensive knee surgery
and has not been able to participate
in sports for her first two years of
high school. My son is on the Select
Soccer team and a Travel Baseball team,
along with the Babe Ruth team. He loves
sports and has that same passion I had.
I have to keep an eye on him as to what
is too much for him and his spirit,
and learn to help him ease down. Same
with the children I teach. I can tell
where the level of confidence is, and
when they can be pushed and when they
need space. I feel that competition
is very important in elementary children,
and learning how to win and how to lose
are very important lessons in their
growth of self-confidence.
At this young age they need to know
that just because another friend deserves
something, they should not expect to
get the same. It amazes me to see children
even at the age of 10 or 11 receiving
trophies “JUST” for participating,
not even for winning, in the hopes that
no one’s feelings get hurt. I
am a strong believer that children at
a young age of 8 are able and should
be able to handle the losses in life,
but taking the risk to be different
or challenging will help improve and
stretch their comforts zones and enable
them to grow. Remember the average athlete
struggles to keep up, so we need to
reinforce positive attitude and sportsmanship.
Those character traits are usually shown
when a loss happens. A great teaching
tool!
What about Drugs in athletes
and children? It is very difficult
for children these days because drugs
can be found everywhere, and it may
seem to some teens that everyone’s
doing drugs. Lots of teens are tempted
by the excitement or escape that drugs
seem to offer without realizing the
harm that is associated with them.
There are different types of drugs.
Some are helpful, and some are harmful.
Drugs which are prescribed as medicines
can cure, slow, or prevent disease,
helping to promote happier and healthier
lives. Children need to know the difference
between beneficial and harmful drugs
because there are many illegal, harmful
drugs that, once swallowed, inhaled,
or injected, can find their way into
the bloodstream, which in turn is transported
to the brain. Here, drugs can either
intensify or dull senses, alter the
sense or alertness, and sometimes decrease
physical pain.
Why do we think kids take drugs? What
makes good kids make bad choices? How
can we help these pre-teens or teens
see the damage before they try drugs?
When I was asking my friends and peers,
we came up with some examples:
1. Peer pressure and fitting in.
2. Perform better in sports and on tests.
3. Trying drugs once just to see what
happens.
4. Rebel against parents. Trying to
get attention.
5. They might feel they would be more
popular.
6. Depression (with friends, relationships,
not making the team, poor test grades).
The average child will sometimes fall
through the cracks with not having the
confidence or the opportunities to move
ahead. With outside help, like others
their age, they can be encouraged to
propel forward. We need to help these
children understand that turning to
drugs because of self-worth or depression,
and trying to escape the problem, isn’t
healthy and won’t work. The truth
is, drugs don’t solve problems;
they simply hide feelings and problems.
When the drug wears off, the problem
will still be there and the feelings
will remain or become worse. Drugs can
ruin every aspect of a person’s
life. Our job is to hopefully help all
children we teach to recognize this
and not stop talking to them about the
effects of drugs. What alerts me are
the young girls who turn to diet pills
and amphetamines! We need to express
the danger of these stimulants. These
stimulants accelerate functions in the
brain and body.
The truth is that all kids will try
to find out who they are and where they
belong in middle or high school. They
will face many pressures, successes,
failures; we hope by this time they
have experienced all these pressures
at some level and have built their self-confidence
to a level of comfort. These are the
children who will probably succeed and
stay away from drugs.
Through parenting and teaching we are
their role models, and what we do reinforces
what they think. In my opinion the most
important years of children’s
lives are when they are young. Their
brains are like sponges, absorbing important
information. These young children look
to us for guidance, love, and laughter.
It is our job, through struggles that
may come upon us, to continually educate
how to be a person that “they”
are proud of. Everyone is going to face
challenges. It is the way those challenges
are overcome and who helps them overcome
them. It starts in the home with home
values, and extends into schools and
the communities.
My principal came back from a conference
and shared an article written by Eliza
Ridgeway from the Los
Altos Town Crier newspaper.
It was an interview with Professor Denise
Clark Pope from Stanford University
School of Education. I asked for permission
to use and share this with you in hopes
you too can realize just how much pressure
is put on our youth, and how you can
also play an active and important roles
in the lives of your children and the
children you teach. Please take time
to read and to share with others. This
very informative article is attached
(pg
1, pg
2 ) or find this article online
- whole
article online, pdf
file at Common
Ground.
Please visit their website at www.challengesuccess.com.
You will find the S.O.S. (Stressed Out
Students) project through an expanded
version of the Stanford University program
called “Challenge Success.”
The three main titles are:
- Our children live in a high-stakes,
high pressure world
- Our children are not prepared for
the challenges of the 21st Century
- We need a broader vision of success
Thank you for all your past responses
on my articles. I look forward to hearing
your opinions and views of this article
too. Please feel free to contact me
anytime.
Kim Nygaard
Peninsula Heritage School
Kim_nygaard@msn.com
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