4 ms·

Is there a high profile, competitive environment where children perform that has not resulted in a lot of damaged children? Examples from music (Jackson Five),

Is there a high profile, competitive environment where children perform that has not resulted in a lot of damaged children? Examples from music (Jackson Five), TV and Movie child actors, this example, and the USA gymnastics all come to mind.

smt88 7y ago
Ballet has destroyed the emotional well-being (and, in some cases, adolescent bodies) of every woman I know who participated. They all have extreme issues with body image, self-esteem, and the perception of achievement, and all of them ascribe these problems to their ballet teachers. (To be more specific, I'm talking about four women. One of them was semi-pro before changing her mind and going to college. The others just did it for fun as kids, not unlike other kids playing recreational basketball.)
- me_me_me 7y ago
  And their toes! My mother was telling me about few physio patient she was helping. Their toes were absolute mess. But no wonder toes are not meant to support whole body.
dansman805 7y ago
Robotics competitions fit your criteria decently well. They are safe, have educational value, competitive and are decently high profile. More specifically, FIRST and Vex are both fairly wide spread.
- GhostVII 7y ago
  I don't think that is high profile in the same way though. You will never be well known for doing well at FIRST since the highest level of competition only has ~6k entrants worldwide. Even at the level of FIRST, I think there are some unhealthy things that come out of the competitiveness, with teams where professional engineers do almost all the work, or a small set of students get a lot more attention than others. But it has a tonne of great benefits despite some small issues.
LanceH 7y ago
Wrestling. I've found that the people that fall short at each level leave the sport with a discipline and sense of accomplishment unlike any other sport. While the unhealthy weight cuts aren't completely in the past, they have been addressed and greatly mitigated.
- samatman 7y ago
  I think wrestling is great, but rates of injury are pretty high. Cauliflower ear is kind of a badge of pride in those circles, but it definitely qualifies as damage. Rotator cuff injuries are quite common, and I suspect that cases of disordered eating are higher than you might think.
- smileysteve 7y ago
  Wrestling is notorious for eating disorders, performance enhancing drug use, dehydration (via cutting water weight - sweatsuits specifically), etc. But also has its own historical accusations of drug use, abuse, murder with its own documentary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxcatcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxcatcher If we choose time periods closely enough, most sports are probably scandal free 5-15 years at a time.
  - LanceH 7y ago
    Your right, I misread. Historically wrestling has been awful. It's the rare example of something coming out better from lessons learned.

smt88 7y ago

Ballet has destroyed the emotional well-being (and, in some cases, adolescent bodies) of every woman I know who participated. They all have extreme issues with body image, self-esteem, and the perception of achievement, and all of them ascribe these problems to their ballet teachers. (To be more specific, I'm talking about four women. One of them was semi-pro before changing her mind and going to college. The others just did it for fun as kids, not unlike other kids playing recreational basketball.)

me_me_me 7y ago
And their toes! My mother was telling me about few physio patient she was helping. Their toes were absolute mess. But no wonder toes are not meant to support whole body.

dansman805 7y ago

Robotics competitions fit your criteria decently well. They are safe, have educational value, competitive and are decently high profile. More specifically, FIRST and Vex are both fairly wide spread.

GhostVII 7y ago
I don't think that is high profile in the same way though. You will never be well known for doing well at FIRST since the highest level of competition only has ~6k entrants worldwide. Even at the level of FIRST, I think there are some unhealthy things that come out of the competitiveness, with teams where professional engineers do almost all the work, or a small set of students get a lot more attention than others. But it has a tonne of great benefits despite some small issues.

LanceH 7y ago

Wrestling. I've found that the people that fall short at each level leave the sport with a discipline and sense of accomplishment unlike any other sport. While the unhealthy weight cuts aren't completely in the past, they have been addressed and greatly mitigated.

samatman 7y ago
I think wrestling is great, but rates of injury are pretty high. Cauliflower ear is kind of a badge of pride in those circles, but it definitely qualifies as damage. Rotator cuff injuries are quite common, and I suspect that cases of disordered eating are higher than you might think.
smileysteve 7y ago
Wrestling is notorious for eating disorders, performance enhancing drug use, dehydration (via cutting water weight - sweatsuits specifically), etc. But also has its own historical accusations of drug use, abuse, murder with its own documentary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxcatcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxcatcher If we choose time periods closely enough, most sports are probably scandal free 5-15 years at a time.
- LanceH 7y ago
  Your right, I misread. Historically wrestling has been awful. It's the rare example of something coming out better from lessons learned.