What Are Your Children Learning?The Impact of High School Sports on the Values and Ethics of High School Athletes, A Survey by the Josephson Institute

On the surface, sports are about competition — winning and losing. But, clearly, sports contain a more serious purpose, too. Broadly speaking, sports — particularly youth sports — are crossroads of character and controlled laboratories of interpersonal and inter-group conflict. The competitive drive that has helped us prosper as a species, but also threatens to annihilate us, forces each generation to confront great moral questions as they make their mark. And these questions are often introduced to children and young adults for the first time on the fields, rinks, mats, and courts. Ideally, we can help to direct that drive in a positive direction.Toward that end, the Josephson Institute of Ethics — founded in 1987 “to improve the ethical quality of society by changing personal and organizational decision making and behavior” — recently surveyed more than 5,000 high school athletes to find out what they’re learning in the sports laboratory.And, not surprisingly, the results are mixed.Student-athletes report that they admire their coaches and appreciate the life lessons that they take from their athletic experiences. But they also report that the lessons are often negative. While the high school athlete is less cynical and less likely to steal than his or her classmates, their honesty level slides when it comes to stealing victories. As the institute’s president, Michael Josephson, puts it, “Far too many boys and girls engage in other dishonest, deceptive, and dangerous practices without regard for the rules or traditional notions of fair play and sportsmanship.” In other words, win at all costs.We’d be foolish to think that this value stops at the boundaries of the athletic field, and it doesn’t. Student-athletes, according to the poll, are more likely to cheat on an exam than their peers. And, though the poll doesn’t cover the question of cheating beyond school, it’s not a logical stretch to imagine this lesson being carried further into life.Clearly, students take their cues from the adults in their lives. The pollsters unambiguously conclude that many student-athletes attribute their less-than-admirable practices directly to the coaches they admire. And while that’s sobering, it’s also heartening. While we’ve too often failed as stewards of youth athletics, we are still at the helm. With proper support and guidance, coaches — unified behind the ethical model our schools seek to promote — have the opportunity to shape the values of students in ways that are not only good for the students and the game, but for all humanity.