Sport Over Education?

http://multimedia.foxsports.com/m/video/21532982/on-the-mark-not-making-the-grade.htm (Important to watch this)

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/360045-sports-over-education-georgia-legislatures-might-think-so

“The theater department got cut at my school, but at least the roof on that new stadium slides open and closed” (Foster 2010).

There is a common argument whether or not sport is good for interscholastic, or it is bad for interscholastic. Coming from an athletes perspective, I always felt that playing sports have got me through school, it gave me a sense of wanting to keep my grades up, want to attend class, and instilled a work ethic in me. Coakley gives a detailed analysis of the claims for and claims against interscholastic sports.

Claims For

• They involve students in school activities and increase interest in academic activities.
• They build self-esteem, responsibility, achievement orientation, and teamwork skills required for occupational success today.
• They foster fitness and stimulate interest in physical activity among students.
• They generate spirit and unity and maintain the school as a viable organization.
• They promote parental, alumni, and community support for school programs.
• The give students opportunities to develop and display skills in activities valued in society and to be recognized for their competence.

Claims Against

• They distract students from academic activities and distort values in school culture.
• They perpetuate dependence, conformity, and a power and performance orientation that is no longer useful in society.
• They turn most students into passive spectators and cause too many serious injuries to athletes
• They create a superficial, transitory spirit that is unrelated to educational goals.
• They deprive educational programs of resources, facilities, staff, and community support.
• They create pressure on athletes and support a hierarchical status system in which athletes are unfairly privileged over other students.

(Coakley, 2009)

Although there are both positives and negatives to this arguments intercollegiate programs have found ways to benefit their schools. High profile sports teams can be used in connection with fund raising efforts. Also, sports teams provide an on-campus social events and occasions. Although, the common belief for people is that sport brings a sense of pride to a community, or city, or even a state. When people travel to different places or new places, most towns and cities will have signs that state they are the, "state champions," or "little league champions," or somewhere along those lines of winning something. People hold sports high and close to them, and hold on to the memories and always look to live through other memories. One place in the fall where you find most people is at their local high school football game, whether or not their child plays on the team, band, or is a cheerleader.

Sport is a sense of pride, but where is the line drawn in all of this. When do we as a society draw the line of obsession, and fan? Is there a common ground where we say the children's education is more important then something most kids wont go pro in. Where is the future for most kids today, scholastic with a job, or in sport?


Foster, M. (2010, March 10). Sports over education? georgia legislators might think so. Bleacher Report, Retrieved from  http://bleacherreport.com/articles/360045-sports-over-education-georgia-legislatures-might-think-so

Coakley, J. (2009). Sports in society. New York, New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.