Let's get rid of High School Sports

[BillB]

Why not eliminate high school sports?
We are graduating a bunch of kids who can't make change or find Waxahachie on a Texas map.
How do they have time for sports? That stuff takes a lot of time. I know it does because I did it.
There is always a scandal brewing somewhere. When a recruiting fire is put out, fake grades pop up somewhere else.
I think it should all be thrown out and the kids would be better off for it.

[planosteve]

I don't think sports is the problem. Govt. is the problem. It can't do anything right. We need to cut funding for public education after the 8th grade. Then let the free enterprise system work it's magic in education like it does everything else.

[BillB]

I don't think sports is the problem. Govt. is the problem. It can't do anything right. We need to cut funding for public education after the 8th grade. Then let the free enterprise system work it's magic in education like it does everything else.

I agree but that's not going to happen in our lifetimes.

What we can do is strip the school system we have, down to nothing but pure education.

[bodine]

I'm probably not the one to be commenting here...

Success in school in general and school sports in particular is all about parental involvement. School work always comes first. Sports are a privilege, not a right...

[LibraryLady]

We need to cut funding for public education after the 8th grade

That's what 3rd world countries do. Yes, let's jump on THAT idea!

[planosteve]

The only thing I learned in HS that did me any good was how to type. I could have done that on my own.

[Red Oak]

At least one year could be knocked off High School and no one would be any less educated, IMO.

[GFB]

At least one year could be knocked off High School and no one would be any less educated, IMO.

Hmm..think we could go for two?

[Gopher]

At least one year could be knocked off High School and no one would be any less educated, IMO.

Hmm..think we could go for two?

Then add two years mandatory military service?


Hell of an idea.

[FlashM]

Our boys were really smart. I could have home schooled them easily because they were self-motivated to learn.

But I didn't . Because I think there are some very important things that need to be learned that aren't found in books. Kids need to interact and be part of teams. One of the best ways to interact is through sports and competition.

Teachers are saying that all the electronics are stunting our children's social growth.

You just don't learn camaraderie, perseverance, fair play, how to deal with aggression and continue after defeat from academics.

We are social animals who need to be part of teams. Our youth, males especially, have hormones that cause them to thrive on danger and glory.

Not everyone is a scholar. We need engineers, scholars, athletes, musicians and artists. We need to feed mind, body and spirit in our schools.

[PlanoSooner]

sports = good
banners = commies

[BillB]

Our boys were really smart. I could have home schooled them easily because they were self-motivated to learn.

But I didn't . Because I think there are some very important things that need to be learned that aren't found in books. Kids need to interact and be part of teams. One of the best ways to interact is through sports and competition.

Teachers are saying that all the electronics are stunting our children's social growth.

You just don't learn camaraderie, perseverance, fair play, how to deal with aggression and continue after defeat from academics.

We are social animals who need to be part of teams. Our youth, males especially, have hormones that cause them to thrive on danger and glory.

Not everyone is a scholar. We need engineers, scholars, athletes, musicians and artists. We need to feed mind, body and spirit in our schools.

It sounds like we can empty out our prisons by letting the convicts play a little football...but I don't think so.

I raised two sons and neither of them played sports in school. If what you say about school sports is true, they were deprived of learning camaraderie, perseverance, fair play, how to deal with aggression and continue after defeat. Also their hormones were not properly directed.
They both have degrees and have much better jobs than I ever had. One is a professor at a well known university. I'm proud of them both.
So no, I don't agree with your post.

[Kiamichi]

Two things I have never understood is why this country thinks it is necessary to link health insurance and employment, and youth athletics and schools.

[Bob Of Burleson]

Let's get rid of overemphasis on high school sports.

[planosteve]

It would have saved Allen over 60 million dollars.

[BillB]

Here's an interesting article.
A few excerpts.

In the spring of 2012, after the state threatened to shut down Premont Independent School District for financial mismanagement and academic failure, Ernest Singleton suspended all sports—including football.

To cut costs, the district had already laid off eight employees and closed the middle-school campus, moving its classes to the high-school building; the elementary school hadn’t employed an art or a music teacher in years; and the high school had sealed off the science labs, which were infested with mold. Yet the high school still turned out football, basketball, volleyball, track, tennis, cheerleading, and baseball teams each year.

“I’ve been in hundreds of classrooms,” says Singleton, who has spent 15 years as a principal and helped turn around other struggling schools. “This was the worst I’ve seen in my career. The kids were in control. The language was filthy. The teachers were not prepared.” By suspending sports, Singleton realized, he could save $150,000 in one year. A third of this amount was being paid to teachers as coaching stipends, on top of the smaller costs: $27,000 for athletic supplies, $15,000 for insurance, $13,000 for referees, $12,000 for bus drivers. “There are so many things people don’t think about when they think of sports,” Singleton told me. Still, he steeled himself for the town’s reaction. “I knew the minute I announced it, it was going to be like the world had caved in on us.”

That first semester, 80 percent of the students passed their classes, compared with 50 percent the previous fall. About 160 people attended parent-teacher night, compared with six the year before.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc ... ts/309447/

[bodine]

Our boys were really smart. I could have home schooled them easily because they were self-motivated to learn.

But I didn't . Because I think there are some very important things that need to be learned that aren't found in books. Kids need to interact and be part of teams. One of the best ways to interact is through sports and competition.

Teachers are saying that all the electronics are stunting our children's social growth.

You just don't learn camaraderie, perseverance, fair play, how to deal with aggression and continue after defeat from academics.

We are social animals who need to be part of teams. Our youth, males especially, have hormones that cause them to thrive on danger and glory.

Not everyone is a scholar. We need engineers, scholars, athletes, musicians and artists. We need to feed mind, body and spirit in our schools.

How very true. Kids also need the exercise, the structure, and the physical/mental challenges that sports offers.

[planosteve]

School may be better compared with doing nothing. But, you go to work and you will have plenty of exercise and challanges. And you will acquire marketable skills. This country was settled and built by people that had very little formal education. Now, with everybody educated, it is falling apart.
With all this "healthy exercise" 1 out of every 7 boys will be diagnoced with ADHD. Most will be put on psychotic drugs. How many of them will eventually become mass murderers?

[jellowrestling]

School may be better compared with doing nothing. But, you go to work and you will have plenty of exercise and challanges. And you will acquire marketable skills. This country was settled and built by people that had very little formal education. Now, with everybody educated, it is falling apart.
With all this "healthy exercise" 1 out of every 7 boys will be diagnoced with ADHD. Most will be put on psychotic drugs. How many of them will eventually become mass murderers?

The kids who play sports account for about zero percent of the mass murderers.

Kids are diagnosed with ADHD because they are all expected to act like girls, and many boys (and some girls) have no interest in doing that. Banging away at test preparation may sound like a great idea to administrators, but kids like to play. When I was in the first grade, we had recess three times a day, plus lunch, and had a shorter day. Magically, nobody ever heard of ADHD.

I agree that we need to look at the link between medicating kids and later psychological problems, but sports aren't the problem. Band and choir aren't, either.

[BillB]

We need to cut funding for public education after the 8th grade

That's what 3rd world countries do. Yes, let's jump on THAT idea!

We're already in the 3rd world educationally. We're probably even lower than that.
We rank 36th in the world in mathematical skills and only slightly better than that in reading and science.

I believe it's because we dilute our school days with too much nonsense- expensive nonsense.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablo ... hs-science