Michael Lewis

Early Setbacks Are Not a Verdict on a Child’s Future

Michael Lewis argues that youth sport is most valuable not as a route to achievement but as a setting where children learn that failure is real without being final. Speaking with Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program founder Tom Farrey, Lewis says parents’ anxiety about early setbacks can lead them to obstruct coaches and teachers in an effort to protect children from ordinary difficulty. His practical prescription is to educate parents when children are young, before every loss or selection decision is treated as a judgment on a child’s future.