Society and It's Status Quo Anonymous 12th Grade

Society serves as a window into the beliefs and attitudes of American life, revealing the true values of particular communities and humanity at large. At the high school level, sports can be used as a vehicle to teach children the value of hard work, dedication, discipline, and the role teamwork can play in attaining important goals. However, as revealed in H. G Bissinger’s novel, Friday Night Lights, the desire to win can obscure the importance of instilling other important values. “There seemed to be an opportunity in Odessa to observe not simply the enormous effect of sports on American life, but other notions, for the values of Odessa were ones that firmly belonged to a certain kind of America, an America that existed beyond the borders of the Steinberg cartoon, an America of factory towns and farm towns and steel towns and single-economy towns all trying to survive” (xii-xiii). Sports are one aspect of society that has the ability to bring people together while simultaneously revealing the distinct separations among class and race. In most American towns is is common for residents to gather at a field or stadium to watch their hometown team compete against rival teams in the quest to claim the title of Champion. Fans put...