By Robert L. Jackson, Ph.D. | June 16, 2022
Classical educators often praise the benefits of leisure—the unhindered quest for humane ideals, like truth and beauty, as ends in themselves. A typical image of such leisure involves edifying conversations concerning those ideals: seminars of thoughtful conversation to deepen and refine a community’s understanding of reality.
Yet, we also experience leisure through the synchronous activities of mind and body. Activities such as music, drawing, and hiking serve as ends in themselves, each producing distinct fulfillment in a specific fashion.
Perhaps, then, we should recognize how the practiced skills and corresponding dexterity of sports provide another, intrinsically popular form of leisure. These ‘athletic conversations’ involve player-participation in a rule-governed game of spontaneous performance that combines skill and wit, ability and luck, planning and execution. All with the goal to WIN!
This issue of VIRTUE explores how the leisure of athletics can provide real insights to the pursuit of a philosophical and humane way of life.
To begin, classicist Michael Poliakoff (American Council of Trustees and Alumni) takes us on a tour of athletic competition throughout the ancient world, showing us how sport has served to improve the qualities of soul through public contests. Virtues of perseverance and courage were obtained in the struggle for the laurel wreath, as bystanders bore witness to the physical and spiritual prowess of the athletes—a Hellenistic legacy that comes down to the present-day in the Olympic games.
In classical schools, the cultivation of virtue happens throughout the day—and certainly in the activities surrounding sports. As network athletic director Jon Rickey (Great Hearts) argues, a player must respect the coach and the team, the rules and the officials if the sport is to be played well. Similarly, Rickey explains, virtuous players must accept the demands of diligence and integrity, perseverance and justice, to obtain a level of excellence in their chosen sport.
Without question, practice is close to the soul of sports, whereby the inexperienced novice develops skills that lead to ever-greater proficiency—even to the distant achievement of excellence. Thus, professor John Doody (Arizona State University) argues, we learn to obtain the good life through daily practices and routines that lead us toward virtue. The very skills practiced in every drill, play, or shot taken anticipate playing the game to the best of one’s ability—and, by extension, to understand the practices that equip us to obtain the best life.
We are pleased to have Great Hearts Olympic alumna Sarah Sponcil (Veritas Prep ’14) provide us with a few reflections on her volleyball career. For Sponcil, the physicality, creativity, and strategy of the game has always had an allure. Yet, behind her success, she acknowledges the importance of the people who have served as her essential “support system,” without which no athlete can thrive.
For the classical educator committed to leisure, there is much to be said for the ‘great conversation’ surrounding sports. For each new generation, sports reveal and reinforce the importance of healthy competition, sportsmanship, habit formation, and the essential community of families, coaches, teammates, and friends—all of whom provide the extended relationships that sustain the game and promote the athlete’s personal best.
Sports engage our bodies and our minds in shared leisure. We play together—and learn more about ourselves and our community, in the process. Indeed, we grow as individuals within teams, even as we enjoy the physicality and esprit de corps of sports. In the end, our athletic striving equips us with life-lessons on excellence, even while we play—a sure sign of leisure. As John Wooden famously said, “Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.”
Dr. Robert L. Jackson is the executive director of the Institute for Classical Education.
Image: Logan Middendorf, 9th grade student at Glendale Preparatory, Anthony K. Lam