Tens of millions of children in the United States participate in youth sports, an experience widely believed to be an important part of a good childhood. Yet most children who enter youth sports are driven to quit by the time they enter adolescence, and many more are sidelined by youth sport’s high financial burdens.
In More Than Play, Professor Koller sets the stage for a different approach by illuminating the law and policy assumptions supporting a model that puts children's bodies to work in an activity that generates significant surplus value. In doing so, she identifies the wide array of beneficiaries who have a stake in a system that is much more than just play—and the political choices that protect these parties' interests, often at children's expense.
"The full value of youth sports may be realized, and true reform will happen, if we direct our attention away from simply urging children to participate, and instead work to design a youth sport system in which all children are given the opportunity, and would want to." - Professor Koller
