Each generation has their beef with there future generations, this is a well know and generally accepted truth. I have found that issue for myself. However, ranting is not going to illustrate my picture and I firmly believe it will not encourage change. Rather I hope to pose a perspective and in honestly am looking forward to hearing feedback.
Tradition is a thing my generation and those before me lived and cherished. Tradition was a uniting factor despite the pains we had in the political and social world around us. Our country preserved their roots through traditions that brought our minds back to those difficult times that we fought hard in order to get to a place that we could even have traditions in the first place.
One of those traditions is sports. While I admit there are times too much pressure is placed on our younger countrymen to excel in sports. On the other hand we have also forgotten why it is important to teach our children that a lost game or failure is alright, in fact it is a great thing. Why? It teaches us that the next game we have another chance. It teaches that if you fail this goal there are other chances to make one. Sports encourage a bit of competitiveness that our children may not understand when they get into the workplace without that experience. Competitiveness fills the void in our history of needing to use survival skills to make it in life. It became a tradition to remember the fight we had as a country, and reminds us ultimately how strong we really can be.
Failure in adulthood can lead to depression. Although that is not going to be prevented by playing sports as a child it may just give a person the coping tools to get back up and try again, after all just because we loose one or five games doesn’t mean we are going to loose them all.
The other tradition I’d like to address at present is that of music. Not simply listening to the newest pop star, but actively engaging in music, playing an instrument, singing even attending concerts. Music can be a child’s second language and helps the brain to be able to learn foreign languages. Music was a tradition used to express emotions and to bring people together as a community. Music improves a person’s brain and intelligence, as explained in this article by the Telegraph.
Music has been reduces in many schools as nothing but an elective that few children utilize. Music has been something that children do not strive for because generations before describe music students as nerds in such a negative way that there is no desire to go and be “a nerd”. We are taking away an American tradition, we are taking away an opportunity for our children because we don’t encourage it, we are failing our future generations because we no longer see the value of traditions. We no longer feel traditions within ourselves and our country.
I am by no means saying we need to force our children to play sports and play an instrument. I am not saying that we should riddle our children’s lives with failure to help them grow. I do hope to impress the loss of a large part of our country’s heritage.
Thank you for reading my non-rant rant! I encourage you comments and experiences below.