Saint Paul, to the Corinthians, has this to say: “Don’t you realise that the runners in the Stadium, all of them run, but only one gets the medal? You are to run in such a way as to win. Everyone who is in athletic training exercises self-control (but they do it to win a medal that will fade away…!); so I am running in such a way as not to be without purpose. When I box, I do it in such a way as not to land my blows on empty air – instead I let my body know who is boss, and I make it my slave… ” (1 Corinthians).
School sport can be an important part of learning to think about important themes for a good life: the desire for excellence, teamwork, self-discipline, generosity, single-mindedness. The truths learnt in the atmosphere of effort and adversity that is created on the sportsfield are lessons that can forge the characters of strong and caring leaders who know about fighting for a cause with a generous and selfless spirit.
The second century St Clement of Alexandria, one of the first Christian teachers to develop a theory of education, underlines what for him are the two main formative benefits of sport: “to aim at not only a healthy habit of body, but courageousness of soul” and also the development of a taste for pushing oneself to one’s limit, not out of pride, but simply out of a desire for excellence, or in Clement’s words: “not for the sake of vainglory, but for the exuding of manly sweat!” (The Pedagogue; Bk III, Ch. 10).
Obviously, COURAGE and EFFORT, once developed as virtues, pay off in exam success in other subjects, and even in the spiritual life, the biggest test of all.
Catholic boarding schools 
Reblogged this on UK Chav.