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Last week, I was searching online for a newspaper article I needed to link to for the One Size Fits All article.  I was surpised at how many newspaper articles concerning high school sports I had to dig through before I could find the academic article that I was searching for.

I’m not sure why I was surprised, because it is not new news to me that sports are very important in high school (and college for that matter).  I remember reading the Wikipedia article written on the high school I attended which basically said “This high school performed at a D level this year academically, but they have an award winning football team!”.  When mentioning which high school I went to to those familiar with the area, I get the same response, “Oh yeah, they have a great football team!”.

Special thanks to kafeole for permission to use this photo.

Why do we focus so intently on sports?  If you’re talking about a school with a really poor acadmic program and a really awesome sports program, the academic part should not be swept under the rug. 

I’m not a sports fan, and the college that I went to did not have any sports teams (unless you consider Ultimate Frisbee a sport) so maybe I am a little biased.  I don’t think sports in high school are a bad thing, by any means.  I think it’s great for kids to have the option of joining a sports team.  We all know that organized sports and clubs can be good for kids self-esteem, and can keep them focused and out of trouble.  My problem is that we seem to be focusing solely on sports and ignoring the huge problems that exist with the academic aspect of public education these days.

What do you think?

Nicole Burris
Associate Registrar
Ashworth University

This entry was posted on Monday, November 12th, 2007 at 9:09 am and is filed under Education Crisis, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.