Oh Guts Bol

Sport is undervalued in our schools. Although sport in schools is becoming more and more important every year, too much emphasis is still placed on the academic side. This is not to suggest that the academic side is not as important, it is to prove that important skills, such as leadership; self confidence and friendship making will go unlearnt, students will face health issues and there will not be that extra career pathway if a greater emphasis is not placed on the sporting side of schooling.

Through sport many students are able to increase their people skills immensely. These skills include leadership, self confidence and the ability to make friends. Leadership is developed within tense sporting situations, as players need to take charge and lead from the front in order for their side to end up on the right side of the ledger. Great friendships are also able to be forged within a tightly knit team as you train, play and go through tough times together every week. This allows the best, and the worst, of a persons personality to shine through and let everyone within that team know exactly what sort of a person they really are. With a greater number of friends self confidence is easily built. As you become more at ease around people you will gain the confidence within yourself to carry out a task, no matter how hard. People skills are easily developed through sports, therefore the need for a greater emphasis on sport within the school environment.

Through sport, especially in schools, the ever growing child obesity problem will be helped. With a greater emphasis on sport within schools the disgusting statistic that four in ten children in New Zealand are overweight will be able to be reduced. It is proven by professional health experts’ world wide that regular exercise daily will help reduce the chance of obesity within a child. Obesity is just another reason why the, undervalued, sporting side of school needs a much greater emphasis than it is currently...