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It is a mere fact that children are often inclined to imitate the action of their parents. By means of this they taught how to avoid difficult situation and how to improve it for the better. At that stage of mind shaping the main examples to follow are their relatives. But in the course the youth become conscious of their dreams and goals and try to imitate other people who achieved the same goals and whose dreams came true. In most cases those people are represented by celebrities of different areas of life. So let us define whether children should inherit sport stars and celebrities and cinsider them as the role model.
Before getting down to the problem of assigning the status of the role model to the sport stars and celebrities, we should figure out the notion of the role model itself, and its purpose. While considering that issue, it should be admitted that “a role model is someone to whom we look up for examples to behave in the performance of the role” (Garry Whannel, 2002). However, the objects of the role model can be various and it depends upon the preferences of a person and upon the choice of a certain activity. Beyond this, the role model could often be associated with such terms as “mentor” and “hero”. So, many scientists consider athletes to be sport heroes when admiring them whereas role model athletes are likely to be defined when discussing the difference between athletes who are to influence the human behavior, attitudes and moral values and who conform to the much higher cultural standards. In addition, such mentors are admired by individual not only for physical but also for intellectual and moral superiority (Traci A. Guiliano et al., 2007).
It is an acknowledged fact that professional sport negatively affects the health of a sportsman. Using steroids and some specific medicines to be in an appropriate form, training 24 hours per day and 7 days per week imposes inevitable consequences on health. Unfortunately, children being blinded by the perfect form of the sport stars do not realize the actual matter of facts and still have a burning desire to emulate them. However, most sportsmen that became famous take advantage of their status and start taking drugs. Unfortunately, not many children are not fully aware of the actual danger of drugs and imperturbably believe that drugs are the attribute of wealthy life. It especially concerns the young athletes whose career is at their pick. Consequently, acquiring enormous sums of money presupposes an easy access to the drugs implying that “if professional sportsmen take drugs it will not do any harm to you” (Robert Stephen Weinberg, 2007). In the course of involving in the world of professional world the young sportsmen will be totally sure that to be successful in sport you should take drugs or steroids. So subconsciously they will consider that taking drugs is legally accepted as it is available for the professionals whom they consider to be the role models.
It is not a rare occasion that children are misled by the behavior of their favorite sport star through imitating and attributing wrong virtues and features of character due to the fact that they consider them icons of the sport life. Consequently, children can inherit such values as wealth, glamour and popularity rather than “positive human characteristics” such as courage, talent and generosity (Sally Coulthard, 2007). As a result, children are striving to behave like adults and to be wealthy and glamorous as their sports favorites who dress trendy clothes and have thousand of pair of jeans and shoes. Meanwhile, their parents are at a loss since cannot afford to buy the things the child want. Thus, by means of mass media kids become aware only one part of sport celebrity’s life without having an idea about the real difficulties that a sportsman overcomes to reach successful results. So a child should admire not the way a sportsman is dressed or what cars he/she buys but what result in sport he/she achieves. For instance, after a successful game of Andrew Flintoff children became widely interested in cricket modeling the way the players dress and the way they look and behave (Mark Adams & George Caplan, 2007). Hence, a child is eager to get the desirable thing otherwise he/she becomes aggressive, as he strongly believes that a high status accepts the possibility of acting like that.
There is a strong belief that it is unfair to perceive athletes as people without drawbacks since if they are talented, they are to be assigned with “much nobler characteristics”. In other words, they are idealized by children and serve an ideal pagan for copying them (Douglas T. Putnam, 1999). In their turn, athletes are conscious of being sport heroes for the majority of kids but very few feel the responsibility for the growing generation asserting that every child has their own parents who are destined to raise their kids and to formulate their goals and ideas irrespective of the. Thus, in most cases it is parents who are to blame causing kids’ disappointment in the sport stars. As a result, children being gifted in a certain king of sport may lose their skills on the ground of a mere reluctance to be a sportsman not realizing that the problem lies in previous negative experience. However, there is a greater probability that sportsmen themselves ignore their status of being a role model for the youngsters. In addition, in the time of press exposure which is prone to highlight scandalous facts rather than positive events, children are likely to be hurt more, even though the information is false (Barry Smart, 2005). To be more precise, sport stars becomes the victims of involuntary assigning them to the role models. Anyway parent must bear the entire responsibility for the upbringing of their children and they should not blame mass media and sport stars in deceiving them.
And finally, I cannot but mention the harmful impact of celebrity on children. Children who are keen on famous sport stars always dream to be famous behaving and talking in the manner as if they were famous personalities. That appears to be a problem when such a behavior is performed in the relation to the significant others. Such a phenomenon leads to the confusion of the role models and the blurring the limits between a child and a parent. (Garry Whannel, 2002). So, generally viewing the aspect, children should be taught to differentiate between the personal relationships and personal preferences.
It goes without saying that there exist a serious ground for the necessity to consider sport stars and celebrities to be an honorable role model for the younger generation. To support the idea, there are diligent sport stars who feel an incredible responsibility for the future younger generation and they are even proud of being a pagan for modeling. Thus, many celebrities set up their own school for boys and girls not only for their own benefit but also for the purpose of discovering new talents and developing the hidden skills of children. Besides, it trains not only physical abilities of kids but strengthens the child character and emotional stability.
Such schools are widespread phenomena nowadays. The most famous sport establishment is David Beckham’s Academy. Where children accepted in the school are inspired by a personal experience of well known football star admired and respected in the world and has become a football hero to many. The school is designed specifically for 7-14 years old children providing a unique set of teaching programs for health and fitness accompanied by highly-qualified trainers.
Another strong point of the necessity of sport stars being the role models for the children lies in the fact that children are taught how to be successful and independent personalities, how to act in overcoming unpredictable obstacles confronting us. In this case, the role of parents lies in directing their kids purposefully and helps them to choose the right role model that would coincide with the inner needs of a child. Being aware of this and taking all the previous aspects into consideration, parents are likely to raise independent and full-fledged personalities who will have the opportunity become other heroes for emulation. The only point here is the leaving the right of choice to the children the way they choose their mentors. For instance youngsters usually choose role models who play the same games (Traci A. Guiliano et al., 2007).
The positive impact of role model on the junk food consumption is one more advantage to approve the importance of accepting star celebrities as a decent role model. It is widely known that the majority of children suffer are reluctant to do physical exercise and to stick to healthy diets. Instead they consume junk food which is rather perishable for their organisms. So while observing the progress of his/her sport icon a child will be inspired by the way his/her favorite sport star looks and will strive to look similarly. That would make children do regular physical exercises. Furthermore physical education stimulates mental activities and increases a vital interest of the educational process.
So after a thorough examination of pros and cons concerning the necessity for the “star heroes and mentor” personality shaping of the growing generation, I am forced to insist on the fact that the role model are obligatory not only in the sphere of sport but also, for instance, in the educational domain. Secondly, despite the obvious drawbacks of the concept it still has apparent chances for the existence due to the fact that the role model aspect is considered to be the basis of the healthy lifestyle and objective mental activity including gender preferences. No matter how strange it may sound, but the danger of choosing the wrong role model of behavior (like in the case with drugs) presupposes that children still gain experience since bad experience is also an experience. And finally, even sport stars have their own icons for emulation.
Reference List
- Garry Whannel (2002). Media sport stars: masculinities and moralities. London and New York: Routledge.
- Barry Smart (2005). The sport star: modern sport and the cultural economy if sporting celebrity. India: Gopsons Papers Ltd, Noida.
- Mark Adams George Caplan (2007). BTECV National Sport. England and Wales: Heinemann.
- Sally Coulthard (2007). The parent’s book of checklist: From Toddlers to Teenagers. Essex: Pearson Educated, Ltd.
- Douglas T. Putnam (1999). Controversies of the sports world. US: Greenwood Publishing Group.
- Robert Stephen Weinberg. (2007). Foundation of sport and exercise psychology. US: Human Kinetics.
- Traci A. Giuliano, Kelly L. Turner, James C. Lundquist, Jennifer L. Knight.(2007). Gender and the selection of the public athletic role models. Journal of Sport Behavior, Vol. 30.
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