Posted on 11/21/2005 8:19:30 AM PST by FerdieMurphy
LOL...do your homework! Locally the band, cheerleaders, and sports teams that don't have strong parental booster associations don't proper.
The school doesn't subsidize the football team; the team helps the school prosper! Gate receipts for each team can be about $20k-30k each week.
I'll bet that the chess club and drama clubs contribute far less financially to the school than the football team does.
Obviously we don't place the same values on challenging and developing the mind and body. But that's ok.
"The three other kids in my daughter's AP Physics class are all football players. Her lab partner is the starting quarterback."
There's a ton of good student athletes both in the town where I grew up and where I live now. I only knew one or two "Mooses" when I was growing up.
Note that a lot of clubs do profit from athletics too. Here and where I grew up often worked concessions and raised a LOT of money for their club. Some community groups got in on it too.
> I'll bet that the chess club and drama clubs contribute far less financially to the school than the football team does.
Perhaps not, but they contribute far more to society.
> Obviously we don't place the same values on challenging and developing the mind and body.
Obviously not. I recognize that it is the *mind* that is the most importnat to develop. You want to fund the development of thugs. Well, that's ok... we'll need *somebody* to clean the toilets.
I really do think that it is a shame that we value sports heros more than those that make the honor roll and that teachers don't make what they should be worth. Yes, priorties are out of whack.
But this is a capitalist society and supply will be dicated by demand. If starting pay for a teacher is $35k with no glory and the minimum wage in the Big Leagues is $250k with perks, groupies and adulation, which field do we expect people to aim for?
It really is a shame that some people have such a limited view of sports and athletes. Athletics teach so many other lessons for life.
While it is true that some peak at 18, there are others who continue on participating on a recreational level and also achieve academically.
Astronauts, for example, are not only academics, but athletes as well.
And my favorite example is General Patton. Decathlete/warrior.
Please substantiate your assertion. I find it to be a demostrably false statement.
I recognize that it is the *mind* that is the most importnat to develop. You want to fund the development of thugs. Well, that's ok... we'll need *somebody* to clean the toilets.
Your view is so terribly limited that I doubt that you are even very good as an engineer!
FWIW, I am a member of an engineering specialty group in my profession. Yes, I could have 'Engineer' as part of my job title but choose not to do so. I work with engineers and see many types and varieties on a regular basis and they are NOT thugs.
To equate athlete with 'thug' or janitor shows extreme ignorance on your part.
Engineering is applied science. Take your own hypothesis and test it. You'll find that your hypothesis cannot be proven.
Maybe it is time to pull your slide rule from out of your xxxxx and take up swimming, golf, tennis or some other sporting/atheltic activity. Learn to enjoy life instead of being so bitter.
Dunno. Maybe these activities attract more civilized people.
We place more value on things like finding the negative, placing blame, complaining, fault-finding, gossip, etc. too. I'm with you that those on the honor roll should be highly valued too. I wish the the media would report more on the positive things I see happen with children in my own community, but that just doesn't make news.
Athletics teach many lessons in life--you are right. I have a hockey tournament each year for my students (using PVC pipe insulators and those "bubble balls." While it's more like watching the Keystone Kops, the kids have a lot of fun and learn a lot in the process.
One thing that does make me feel enlightened are what I am seeing from my students. When I first started teaching, the kids' heroes were often sports stars, movie actors, and pop singers. Now, by far the most common mentioned heroes are moms and dads. That's the way it should be.
$35 is NOT even a starting salary for a teacher here. You have to teach several years to get that much. It is just above what a fast food manager makes (not putting them down).
I do lament the fact that astronauts aren't much regarded as heroes any more. Many of them have been Eagle Scouts too. In fact, ask anyone to name a famous scientist nowadays and they probably can't do it. There has been a lack of respect for science from many sides of the spectrum. Yet where would we be without the efforts of dedicated scientists?
Again, all people who do their best at their jobs and do with with a great attitude and ingegrity are heroes in my book.
My real heroes were my religious leaders, the big guy upstairs, my parents, and some teachers, but I did have my athletic heroes too. I loved Dale Murphy because he wasn't like the rest of the baseball crowd. He actually THANKED Atlanta when he got traded. I loved reading baseball books when I was younger. All of my papers during most of my school years were about baseball. I had a lot of baseball heroes like Lou Gehrig, Christy Matthewson, and even Ty Cobb, but my most favorite of all was Yogi Berra.
Yogi has grown to be an even bigger hero for me as I've gotten older. I've started to try to adopt his optimistic outlook on life and the fact that he didn't take himself too seriously. In spite of being some short ugly guy from Saint Louis, he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams and we still remember him today.
No, he seems to think that they are mutually exclusive as evidenced by his statements that atheletes are washed up at 19 and bound to be thugs.
Pro sports only account for a small fraction of all athletics and cannot be accurately used to represent all athletes.
But the universe of professional chess players is even smaller!
As far as contributions to society, look at the spin offs from sports such as the jobs and charitable contributions AND the tax dollars generated. Let's also look at the advances in medicine and biology based on athletic competitions.
So far I think that if one looks objectively at who contributes more to society one would have to say that the contribution of sports is much greater than that of chess.
>> Perhaps not, but they contribute far more to society.
>Please substantiate your assertion. I find it to be a demostrably false statement.
Sports contributes nothign except entertainment. intellectual achievement gives us a functioning economy. Why are the Indian and Chinese economies surging forward? Is it due to their world-renowed powerlifters? Their cricket teams? Or the engineers and scientists?
> Your view is so terribly limited that I doubt that you are even very good as an engineer!
Imagine my concern for your view of me.
> To equate athlete with 'thug' or janitor shows extreme ignorance on your part.
Ah. So real-world experience equates to "ignorance." Well, what an interesting world you must live in.
> Learn to enjoy life instead of being so bitter.
Very Liberal of you "You don't agree with government support of my hobby, so therefore you're bitter."
> It really is a shame that some people have such a limited view of sports and athletes. Athletics teach so many other lessons for life.
Given that this thread is about sports teaching kiddies to be thugs and unsportsmanlike... what lessons did you ahve in mind?
> So far I think that if one looks objectively at who contributes more to society one would have to say that the contribution of sports is much greater than that of chess.
Nice strawman.
Who built the modern economy? Nerds or jocks?
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