Building Character Essay

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Building Character The notion that sport builds character is strongly held in our society. By participating in sports it is believed that it will acquire a host of desirable moral and social values including honesty, fairness, responsibility, teamwork, loyalty, and self-sacrifice. Consequently, a variety of empirical studies have examined the authenticity of the “sport builds character” dictum. (Doty and Lumpkin). However, attempts to test empirically the character building qualities of sports have been met with various criticisms (Doty and Lumpkin). One major criticism in particular deals with the definition of character. As Doty and Lumpkin stated, “One of the most significant problems to plague the investigation of character building through team sports is the extreme diversity of definitions attached to the word character. Professional football player, Troy Brown, commented on former teammate Drew Bledsoe’s ability to play with a broken finger and lead his team to victory. Brown stated, “It showed a lot of character” (Edmundson). As another example, a high school athletic director defined an athlete’s character as “a willingness to try no matter what the situation. An attempt to continually improve; and a willingness to give all up for the cause; and sacrificing without expectations” (Edmundson). In contrast, sport scholars embrace definitions of character that are fundamentally different. For example, Edmundson stated, “In terms of moral goodness, or what I refer to as moral character, it involves a life that complies with such virtues as justice, honesty, and compassion”. Similarly, Doty and Lumpkin defined character as the possession of personal virtues including compassion, fairness, sportsmanship, and integrity. In sum, there appear to be two distinct definitions of character. Coaches, players, and administrators may tend to define character with

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