Posted on 09/19/2013 12:40:31 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
The United States routinely spends more tax dollars per high-school athlete than per high-school math student—unlike most countries worldwide. And we wonder why we lag in international education rankings?
Sports are embedded in American schools in a way they are not almost anywhere else. Yet this difference hardly ever comes up in domestic debates about America’s international mediocrity in education. (The U.S. ranks 31st on the same international math test.) The challenges we do talk about are real ones, from undertrained teachers to entrenched poverty. But what to make of this other glaring reality, and the signal it sends to children, parents, and teachers about the very purpose of school?
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Sports teaches them about competition, teamwork, dealing with winning and losing, friendship, hard work, relating to others, reaching goals, respecting authority...all great life lessons and skills. I can see why a liberal would hate them.
Forgot to mention the keeping out of trouble (drugs especially), focused, accountable to others.
No, the terrible curriculum is the problem. But mandatory sports are awful for people who don’t like them and don’t want to do them.
Death to the dyke gym teachers!
No, they are not, especially if one is a girl.
It’s actually a good article. She makes a lot of good points.
Teamwork? Overcoming adversity? Yes, I guess you can learn those via other means, but sports provide a regularly scheduled pattern of this.
Physical toughness? I've met a lot of women who come up way short. Sports is one of the few ways - and a fun way - to gain this (literal) strength.
Good sportsmanship? Many women I know could stand to learn that aspect of character a lot.
I don’t think she does that. In fact, I think she points out that schools are spending lots of tax money on sports, and that schools focus more on sports than academics.
I don’t think it’s a solution for all schools, but I think it should be cnsidered for schools that are failing.
The same could be said for many regarding math. Buck up!
Mens sana in corpore sano.
But that was a long time ago.........
Not in my town. The high school booster club comes with with lots of cash for stuff the team needs. The taxpayer pays hardly nothing.
And our team has been in the championship game 15 of the last 16 years.
And our high school stands head and shoulders academically over most schools in the state.
It is possible to do both academics and sports. It requires common sense and participation.
I played two sports in high school. I was never distracted from trying to get some.
Never happened. But I was focused.
I didn’t play Little League and grew up with school based sports. My experience with club sports is from my daughters’ participation in, principally, soccer. I have come around to the view that the club model is superior. It is broad at the base. In principle, one can have an unlimited number of teams. It can get extremely competitive at elite levels but there is a team and a level for everyone who wants to play. And all of the notorious abuses of high powered athletics making a mock of academic standards are avoided.
I would favor getting athletics out of schools.
I like football and basketball. But, the over-emphasis on spectator sports has made Americans a nation of spectators. Football, and to a lesser extent basketball, are not life sports. We would be better off if more Americans spent Sat and/or Sunday outside engaging in vigorous outdoor activities than getting fat and drunk watching other people exercise on the football field. (Not that there’s anything wrong with drinks and snacks in moderation.)
Last time I checked, the Math Bee didn’t generate much revenue for a high school, but one football playoff game sure does.
And play midnight basketball.
And sports teaches you how to be a Republican, like I told my kids, because much of the time you have to beat the other team and the referees.
South Korea is known for what, exactly, besides teenage suicide and mass depression? I spent a long time in Texas public education. There’s more to this than simplism and stereotypes. Yes, a coach will make more than a sixth grade math teacher but so will a high school ag science teacher. That’s because the coach and the ag science teacher have an extended year contract and both spend tons more hours on the job than the math teacher. In most cases coaches work more days than assistant principals. Like any other profession, 5% are geniuses; 5% are idiots and 90% fall somewhere in between. As to the per capita expense, all the kids take math; far fewer play football and football generates gate receipts that pay the operating costs of the other sports. Here’s a news flash: no football = no band in most cases.Finally, why is an art teacher more important than a football coach except to folks who hate testosterone?
Get rid of public schools and their damn sports programs.
So do a lot of other activities.
Physical toughness? I've met a lot of women who come up way short. Sports is one of the few ways - and a fun way - to gain this (literal) strength.
So is dance. My daughter is 15 and she has played baseball, softball and street hockey, but she prefers dance and none have been done through school. She refused to go out for the middle school softball team when she aged out of the league she was in (she didn't want to join a travel team) because the rules don't permit the kids to do what she won league MVP doing her last year - stealing bases.
One of the boys who does dance with her is a senior this year. He is the captain of the both the school football and wrestling teams, and carries a 3.95 GPA.
My point is, school sports are not the only means of learning teamwork, overcoming adversity, gaining strength, or learning good sportsmanship.
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