Journal article 275 views 52 downloads
The parental dilemma of talented children
Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, Volume: 51, Issue: 3, Pages: 460 - 475
Swansea University Author:
Paddy McQueen
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PDF | Version of Record
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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DOI (Published version): 10.1080/00948705.2024.2369921
Abstract
A lot of talented children aspire to be professional athletes. They spend many hours each week practicing and competing in the hope of achieving this. To what extent should a parent permit, encourage or even force them to do so? Professional sporting success provides substantial goods and rewards. H...
| Published in: | Journal of the Philosophy of Sport |
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| ISSN: | 0094-8705 1543-2939 |
| Published: |
Informa UK Limited
2024
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| Online Access: |
Check full text
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa66837 |
| Abstract: |
A lot of talented children aspire to be professional athletes. They spend many hours each week practicing and competing in the hope of achieving this. To what extent should a parent permit, encourage or even force them to do so? Professional sporting success provides substantial goods and rewards. However, trying to achieve it imposes many costs on children, such as the diminishment of important childhood goods. I argue that these costs outweigh the potential rewards, especially given the improbability of success, and so parents should not try to maximise their children’s talents for professional success. I also show that how one weighs up the costs and rewards depends on one’s conception of childhood. Finally, I suggest that parents, qua member of society, may well have good reason to maximise their child’s talent, given the social benefits talent maximisation provides. I conclude by arguing that this does not outweigh parents’ duty to provide a good childhood for their children, which talent maximisation undermines. |
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| Keywords: |
Childhood goods, children’s well-being, parental duties, sporting success, talent development, the nature of childhood |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Funders: |
Swansea University |
| Issue: |
3 |
| Start Page: |
460 |
| End Page: |
475 |