Paradigm Shift Thinking Process
Work to articulate the shift:
State the timeframe, from sprout to full bloom: Sprout, I’d assume, started to grow within the last 30 years or so.
Full bloom is right now.
Identify those affected: children from 8-18
Characterize the ideology or worldview before: Sports were recreational, people played multiple sports, if you were good at one you continued to play it, but you never went to a school just to play a sport there.
Characterize the ideology after: Children now play one sport all year round in an attempt to get a scholarship with multiple training sessions a week.
What markers can you point to as evidence of the shift (e.g. new language/terms)?: “year—round,” “Club” “Looks” “Commited” “#DI”
What resistance is evident? Who is resisting the new ideology?: doctors who say that overspecialization causes injuries, kids who burn out easily, Kids who actually enjoy more than one sport, etc.
What is the shift a response to? A discovery? New knowledge? Injustice? A sudden event?: I’d say the shift is caused by the massive amounts of attention and money pumped into collegiate athletic programs.
Who or what was key in moving the shift forward?: College coaches, competitive athletes, parents who like to live vicariously through their children, helicopter parents, videogame manufacturing companies.
What conditions didn’t exist that came to exist that made the shift possible? Consider presence of laws, technology, media (tv shows, music, news organizations), political ideology,psychology, societal/cultural power dynamics, commerce, economic well being, attitudes about race, class and/or gender, etc. Think of this as the “priming of the pump” for this shift: Scholarship money, more of an emphasis on sports, parents are becoming more controlling of their child’s time, the rise of professional sports in popular culture, the glorification of the rags-to-riches superstar, kids don’t play outside anymore, parents must turn to organized sports.
Now, beyond their simple existence, which of these played a more direct role in advancing the paradigm?: I think that, primarily, this shift was caused by the increased tendency of children to play inside. When they began playing inside and stopped playing pickup sports and games on the street with their friends from the neighborhood, children needed to travel to the local field or YMCA and join organized sports teams and leagues in order to have a chance to play actual sports with a sufficient number of other children. These organized sports, however, became more competitive and win-focused, and as players improved from regular practices, college sports became more serious. For many young athletes, a college scholarship became the goal, and in order to make this a reality, they focused their time on their strongest sport. Alas: the specialized athlete under the age of 18-19 is born.
Now, create a map or timeline that charts the emergence of the ideology that pushed the shift into existence. Figure out how to visually present the geo/socio/political/cultural context of the time and how to indicate, where necessary, how sequences of events lent to space for the budding and blooming of a new paradigm and the withering and demise of the old.
Before the late 80’s—children play outside, pickup sports with friends from the neighborhood.
Late 80’s onward- children needed to travel to the local field or YMCA and join organized sports teams and leagues in order to have a chance to play actual sports with a sufficient number of other children. These organized sports, however, became more competitive and win-focused, and as players improved from regular practices, college sports became more serious. For many young athletes, a college scholarship became the goal, and in order to make this a reality, they focused their time on their strongest sport.
2010’s— Alas: the specialized athlete under the age of 18-19 is born.
Visual—possibly showing pictures of children from each decade playing sports, show how they change.