You know the email. It’s the one you receive at the start of the sports season from the head coach of your child’s team. It’s a letter promising his or her priority will be for the kids to have fun. The second goal will be to teach them some of the great life lessons sports have to offer along the way.

You automatically trust the authors of these emails, even though you probably don’t even know their last name. You are sure they have your child’s best interest at heart. They are a coach, after all.

Which you don’t stop to consider is only, by definition, a person who instructs players in the fundamentals of a sport and directs team strategy. Not an educator. Not a person trained in child psychology or in working with children at all. Whatsoever.