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Shifts toward neoliberal, exclusive, privatized, professionalized “pay-to-play” models undermine inclusive participation and weaken democratic potential. Drawing on Dewey and Talisse, the paper highlights benefits and challenges such as excessive costs, family disruption, and hyperindividualism, then proposes reforms including loosely structured play, democratic modeling, direct teaching of democratic habits, and learning from progressive sports models.",{"@graph":69,"@context":126},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/democracy-on-the-sidelines-the-erosion-and-potential-of-youth-sports-as-democratic-education/590294/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/democracy-on-the-sidelines-the-erosion-and-potential-of-youth-sports-as-democratic-education/590294.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Pentious","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-02","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":44},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118,122],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What is the main argument about youth sports in this paper?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Youth sports are an unrealized opportunity for democratic and civic education, but recent transformations have eroded that potential.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Which framework and concerns guide the discussion?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The paper draws on Dewey’s conception of democracy and on Talisse’s concerns about partisan polarization.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What challenges to youth sports are emphasized?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It highlights excessive costs, pressure, disrupted families, and hyperindividualism, alongside reduced diversity on teams in many areas.",{"name":123,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":124},"What reforms does the paper recommend?",{"text":125,"@type":113},"Recommendations include supporting loosely structured play, modeling democratic behavior, teaching democratic habits directly, and learning from more progressive national sports models.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":128,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":130,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":132,"site_id":62},590294,1792170922,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":135},{"doc_id":132,"user_id":136,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":137,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":138,"file_id":139,"file_url":140,"file_type":141,"file_size":142,"view_count":44,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":143,"language":144,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":145,"faqs":146,"seo_title":147,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":148,"read_time":149,"preview_page_count":4},1374404730887,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","AERA Open  \nJanuary-December 2025, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 1–14 DOI: 10. 1177/23328584241311810  \nArticle reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)© The Author(s) 2025. [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero](https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero)  \nDemocracy on the Sidelines: The Erosion and Potential of Youth  \nSports as Democratic Education  \nKurt Stemhagen  \nVirginia Commonwealth University  \nKathy Hytten  \nUniversity of North Carolina Greensboro  \nIn this philosophical paper, we argue that youth sports, both in and out of schools, are a largely unrealized space for democratic/civic education. Where youth sports leagues used to be low cost, local, and inclusive, much has changed over the last several decades. We are now in the neoliberal era of exclusive, privatized, and professionalized youth sports. Drawing on Dewey’s robust conception of democracy and Talisse’s concerns about partisan polarization, we argue that youth sports should be spaces to develop democratic habits, dispositions, and values. We explore the benefits of youth sports as well as current challenges, including excessive costs and pressure, disrupted families, and hyperindividualism. We end by offering suggestions for reforming youth sports to recenter their educational and democratic potential and value, including supporting loosely structured play, modeling democratic behavior, teaching democratic habits directly, and learning from more progressive national sports models.  \nKeywords: philosophy, physical education, democracy, youth sports, democratic education, John Dewey  \nYouth sports have the potential to be an important way forchildren in the United States to learn how to be democratic participants. Unfortunately, youth sports have undergone a disturbing metamorphosis over the last several decades, largely transitioning into a neoliberal-influenced pay-to-play $28 billion industry (Richtel, 2023) . In this article, we discuss the corruption of youth sports and consider how this corruption both reflects and exacerbates our already troubled democracy. Just as one can see that an important purpose of public schools is the cultivation of the habits and dispositions necessary for democratic living, one can similarly envision such desired social outcomes for youth sports. To continue this comparison, students as citizens-in-the-making need to learn to collaborate with others to solve problems; develop the habits, skills, and sensibilities necessary to create equitable policies and practices that allow for all people to thrive (not just a privileged few); and work toward preserving, strengthening, and extending common goods. With this project, we consider what it would mean to extend democratic education beyond classrooms to the playing fields of youth sports. We argue that today’s youth sports are a site both of neoliberal corruption and of unfulfilled educational and democratic potential.1  \nFrom our multiple roles as teachers/coaches/parents/former players, we see sports as having the potential to give children opportunities to learn how to work hard, experience the power of teamwork, learn how to win and lose with dignity, develop healthy habits, and be in community with diverse others. In a lot of ways, this list is very related to the sorts of temperaments, sensibilities, and skills that are needed for democratic living. Moreover, sports teams are one of the few remaining places where young people engage with others across lines of difference, especially while working toward shared goals. However, the changes to youth sports in the last few decades have led to less diversity on sports teams in many areas, which minimizes their democratic potential.2  \nWe define youth sports as organized physical activities and games designed for children and teenagers, from pre-K through high school. Beyond this, it is challenging to bound youth sports because they include many different ty","cbCaiivKtuAroKv9","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiivKtuAroKv9","pdf",453106,14,"English","# Overview and thesis\n# Democratic/civic education potential of youth sports\n# Neoliberal transformation and democratic erosion\n# Challenges and proposed reforms","[{\"question\":\"What is the main argument about youth sports in this paper?\",\"answer\":\"Youth sports are an unrealized opportunity for democratic and civic education, but recent transformations have eroded that potential.\"},{\"question\":\"Which framework and concerns guide the discussion?\",\"answer\":\"The paper draws on Dewey’s conception of democracy and on Talisse’s concerns about partisan polarization.\"},{\"question\":\"What challenges to youth sports are emphasized?\",\"answer\":\"It highlights excessive costs, pressure, disrupted families, and hyperindividualism, alongside reduced diversity on teams in many areas.\"},{\"question\":\"What reforms does the paper recommend?\",\"answer\":\"Recommendations include supporting loosely structured play, modeling democratic behavior, teaching democratic habits directly, and learning from more progressive national sports models.\"}]","Democracy on the Sidelines - The Erosion and Potential of Youth Sports as Democratic Education | PDF",1792069269,35]