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  • spapakon posted an update in the group Group logo of ShareShare 10 months ago

    Sport can teach values such as fairness, teambuilding, equality, discipline, inclusion, determination and respect. Sport has the power to provide a universal framework for learning values, thus contributing to the development of noble skills needed for responsible citizenship.
    Participation in physical education and sports has been associated not only with positive effects but also with negative effects such as discrimination, aggression, racism, etc. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights & Council of Europe, states that “there shall be no discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, color, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth, or other status’. However, phenomena such as those described above are still around. Sport/PE teachers and coaches should be supported to recognize, prevent, and deal with discrimination and the various forms that it can take.
    One of the aims of the Erasmus Plus project FAIRHAP was to create awareness, change attitudes towards children with disability, children from different countries and social background, children who are shyer or not very good at sports and educate towards a better society. The inclusive education gives the opportunity for the development of positive attitudes of students toward peers. Children learn to approach other children, develop acceptance of individual children’s differences, become more aware and more responsive to other children’s needs, have empathy and understand their peers’ feelings and care for them.
    Teachers and educators play a major role in the social education of children. The majority of school, sport clubs and recreational activities combine competition and collaboration, which can obviously be a contradictory experience for children. It is the teacher or the coach who must set limits and rules, explain a decision which seems unfair, encourage positive attitudes, and propose sports and other activities which call for fair-play values to be applied. Coaches have a major influence on children, as much on their development of technical skills as on their development of moral and social skills.
    From the above we conclude that children have a lot to gain from physical education training. These benefits are not only limited in acquiring physical skills and abilities, but also aim in the moral, social and personal development of the participants. Sports field is a society on its own, in which those involved have not only to perform their best, but also to collaborate, to help and to care for the rest of the team. In order these outcomes to be achieved a lot stand in the hands of instructors and trainers. Physical education tutors, should always have in mind that they should be a role model in teaching their students to embrace others of different gender, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin. As a result, sports can help in the development of more noble characters and teams, and eventually a better world.

    An example of the positive role of sports can be watched in the Children’s FAIRHAP Tournament in Jelgava, Latvia (9 October 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoScdZG-r8k