text: It has focused our society to prize athletic prowess vs. intellectual ability.  Thus some student athletes do not receive a proper education and associated life skills.  What happens to them if they get a major injury?  They founder.\n\nSports have provided many, many metaphors that are commonly used and understood by most people.\n\nI feel that introducing competitive sports too early to children makes them self-indulgent, less cooperative, and less considerate to others.  We should never teach children to "win at all costs" unless we want them to grow up to be monsters.