liberal1 said:
It would be unfair of me to say that anyone who hasn't played sports doesn't understand what benefits athletics offers (for there is no rebuttle to such a statement), but it's true. Anyway,taking sports out of schools could further deteriate the crisis we already have, obesity in children. Now, I'm not saying that school ssports could solve all the problems of diabetes and all the other weight related problems, but it is a start. True, like the Romans, American society is putting too much importance in athletics, but to eliminate sports in schools altogether is a much worse move. A sport can give someone confidence, or a purpose, or a way to relax, it teaches students to balance their time better (if they want to be successful in academics, and if they don't, that is a problem aimed toward parents rather than sports). In fact, I've often round that usually the all A students are those that participate in after school sporting events.
Of course I don't understand the benefits of sports; that's why I asked. But in my experience, while there are scholar-athletes who excel in both athletics and academics, the students who get all A's are not the athletes. The athletes are the ones who scrape by with C's and a D or two, because they are the popular students, which means they are the students who are socializing instead of paying attention, hanging out and going to practice and games instead of studying and doing homework. You say that a lack of interest in academics is the parents' problem? I'd say obesity is the parents' problem. The schools are supposed to educate the children, and while we cannot ignore the health of the kids, that is not our primary focus, and I don't think it should be. How many obese kids actually play sports? How many obese kids become less obese in order to play sports? Sure, there are certainly students who are in shape because they play sports, but why does this have to be associated with school? Is that where the habits begin?
I recognize that, as others have said, club teams are far away from the schools, and most students don't have transportation. But I don't think that situation would stay the same, if schools stopped sponsoring athletics; I think you would have large numbers of club teams and independent athletics programs centered around the school, and I think that is a good thing. Those club teams could require a certain GPA, and fulfill the same motivational role that school sports play now.
Here's the thing. Many of my students, even most of my students, say that school's greatest value for them is social. They get to see their friends. They get to hang out and talk to their friends. Their classes are secondary to this. Most of the people who play sports are the ones who say these things; they see sports as a chance to socialize, as much as anything else. These same kids get rewarded by the school: they get to wear letter jackets; they have dinners in their honor; the whole school leaves class to cheer for them at pep rallies; they have their pictures enshrined around the school; they are interviewed by the local paper. And in all of the accolades, nobody ever mentions when the star quarterback has a 2.1 GPA. They mention it if he has a good GPA, absolutely -- but only after they list his passing percentage.
This sends a message to the students. When they leave class for pep rallies, it says that the sports, and the athletes, are more important than the classes. When the school posts banners saying, "Go team! Beat the ____'s!" it says that the school's attention is fixed on the athletes, and not on the academics. When the academic student of the month gets less praise from the school than the star of the basketball team, it sends a message. I don't think that message is positive.
This is my experience, as a teacher, with school sports. I have seen many students let their grades drop to almost nothing, and when I ask them what happened, as often as not, the answer is they are too busy, and 90% of the time, they are too busy because they have practice every night. Yes, there are students who fail because they work; yes, there are students who fail because they spend all of their time rehearsing for the play, and the majority of failing students are not the athletes. But there are many failures who are. I do not believe that the qualities of teamwork, cooperation, and competitive drive come only from sports, or that those qualities are more important than the cognitive abilites that schools should teach, and too often don't.
I happen to think that if schools did not support competitive sports, those sports would not vanish from our society. If schools do not teach students how to read and appreciate Shakespeare, however, that would vanish, and that loss would be more serious for our society than the loss of baseball would ever be.
P.S: How many people, in reading this, immediately thought that I was a geek/dork/loser in high school, and that I'm just jealous of the jocks? Doesn't that show something about our priorities?
