Cutting Kids from Sports - A Necessary Evil? YOUR Opinion Wanted!
It is clear that participation in athletics has many educational benefits. Sport has the power to combat everything from racism, to low self-image, to the high-school dropout rate. In 1997 a North Carolina study of more than a quarter million athletes found that athletes make higher grades, get into less trouble, graduate at a higher rate, dropout less often, and have higher GPAs than non-athletes. And for girls, the Women’s Sports Foundation observed that female athletes were 92% less likely to be involved with drugs, 80% less likely to get pregnant, and three times more likely to graduate from high school.
Although it is clear that participation in athletics has many educational benefits, many school districts face an embarrassing irony - they accept and support athletic programs that exclude those students who stand to benefit the most from athletic participation -the low skilled, the low self-esteem, the later maturers, and students whose parents did not or could not support AAU and private instruction.
This spring, Dr. Stephen Jefferies, from Central Washington University’s Physical Education Department is investigating this controversial topic. He is interested in hearing from athletic directors, administrators, coaches, teachers, parents, and students with an opinion and perhaps personal experience of the “cutting” issue. You can contact him at xxx-xxx-xxxx or xxx@spam4u.org. You can also of course post a response on this bulletin board.
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[Edited by UncleBeer on 05-22-2001 at 07:29 AM]