“More lessons are learnt on the sports field than in the classroom.” Express your views either for or against this statement.

More Lessons Are Learnt on the Sports Field Than in the Classroom

For the Statement

Education has come a long way from reading, writing and arithmetic. The three R’s have been broadened to encompass the three A’s–academics, arts and athletics. The first one provides students with the skills and knowledge they need to be productive citizens, the second unleashes their creativity to ensure society’s cultural vitality, and the third promotes health and fitness while instilling love for sports.

In order for a student to mature and grow in life positively, it is important that they receive an education apart from the classroom. Involvement in sports field is a positive force in a student’s life because, it allows them to excel in life following school, aids in healthy social development, and provides life lessons which the students may not otherwise gain. The English ideals on sports, “aim beyond the field to the battle ground of life, and they emphasize fellowship, sacrifice, a sense that how one plays is an emblem of how one will later behave, they teach that victory is ultimately less important than the experience of struggling in common.”

Participation in school sports gives the children a sense of belonging and accomplishment when the game is being played well. They learn to be part of a team and to share success and failure. They discover the value of friendship, mutual respect and cooperation, how to get goals, to strategize and to plan – all important skills to acquire in preparation for adulthood.

Sports teaches some tough lessons too-that the best may not always win, that people sometimes cheat, and that 110 percent effort may not carry the day – and despite of all, you have to come back and do it again. Disappointments build character and resilience to cope with the hard knocks later in life.

Thus, I conclude saying that some of the most important lessons in life are not learnt inside the classroom but outside, that is in the sport field.

Against the Statement

To take the above statement “More lessons are learnt on the sports field than in the class-room,” literally would be a great fallacy especially for students. This is, as the primary activity of a student is to study and acquire knowledge. He can effectively do this only through lessons learnt in the classroom.

The giant strides in the field of science and technology was possible only through persistent effort of scholars and scientists. Their thirst for knowledge lessons learnt in the class-rooms has made our lives more comfortable and luxurious. Similarly, the lessons that we learn in the classrooms would help us shape our future, career and life. In this age of cut throat competition, a difference of one mark in academics can make the difference in success and failure at times, that change our very own lives. Our academic achievements not only help in passing competitive examinations, but also mould our personality and the future.

Undoubtedly there are lessons to be learnt in the sports field, but history is a proof of great scholars and reformers not known for their sporting skills, like Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Mother Teresa and many others, who transformed the society. We also have before us, the great achievements of differently abled scientist, Stephan Hawking, and social reformer Helen Keller. Being physically handicapped, they never played in the sports field-yet their achievement was extraordinary. Thus for students, more lessons are learnt in the classrooms than in the sports field.