-
Essay / Parents should not rely on athletes as role models
Due to the increasing spread of sports, most parents are convinced to motivate their children to imitate athletes because they believe it is a good technique to encourage them to work hard in school and other situations which require additional effort. Indeed, parents view these athletes as possible role models that their children can emulate with the attitude they embody on the field or court. What parents don't consider is that the attitude these athletes take on the field may not be the same attitude they would take off the field. In other words, the heroic exploits of these athletes illustrate only a small fragment of their true nature or rather of what they really are when they are not playing. Time and time again, parents rely heavily on the positive image of extremely competitive athletes. However, parents feel betrayed and confused when the true nature of these heroes becomes a reality and they cease to be role models. For example, Anthony Stalter's claim about Mike Vick in 2001 that he thought he would be the face of the NFL because he was an admirable and respectable athlete. Conversely, this turned out to be incorrect in that he did not know what Vick was doing when he was not on the field. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayEvaluation According to the article, the efforts made by athletes on the field or field are truly convincing and can be considered as models. In particular, parents are the victims of this situation the most as every parent wants the best from their children, which encourages them to imitate athletes based on their performance on the field. This article is very informative in that it informs parents and children about the risk of looking at athletes as role models because most of them just put in effort and good attitude on the field, but when they are off the field, they are different people. In my opinion, I completely agree with the author since I personally have no information about most athletes' lives off the field. However, I find myself relating to most of them because of their exceptional performance and competitive nature. For example, Anthony Stalter had higher hopes that Vick would be the face of the NFL because his judgment was based on Vick's image on the field and not after the whistle. But as he learned how he spent his free time off the field, he realized it wasn't a good idea to rely on an athlete as a role model. More specifically, this article is aimed at schoolchildren who do not yet know who to rely on as role models. As a writer, this reading informed me of the importance of looking beyond what you know about someone to derive the correct inference.