PLN 6

Summary

In "The Case Against High-School Sports" by Amanda Ripley Defends that football should be removed completely in high schools around the country. Ripley is proving this point by saying that many schools are not paying enough attention to the academics but, to the sports. This can lead to major problems Ripley clearly states, such as big financial problems for the schools and the district. Ripley makes a big point that a lot american high schools are promoting sports instead of a solid academic education. Which she proves in a story about a Texas school that really tried to push for sports instead for academics. Ripley is trying to prove a big point that schools need to just pull out football or any sport necessary to have a stable academic education for their students.

Response

"The Case Against High-School Sports" by Amanda Ripley is not correct because students need after schools sports, kids need to stay active after school, to get their minds off of homework, friend problems, and maybe family problems if needed. It's also something fun to do for the student and parents to watch. Parents are a big part of the schools sports, they contribute greatly to the sports. Ripley shows a statement made by James Coleman, and the paragraph say" a visitor entering an American high school would likely be confronted, first of all, with a trophy case. His examination of the trophies would reveal a curious fact: The gold and silver cups, with rare exception, symbolize victory in athletic contests, not scholastic ones … Altogether, the trophy case would suggest to the innocent visitor that he was entering an athletic club, not an educational institution (Colman). This statement is not exactly correct, this might be a good thing that the student is being presented with this. If the student wants the school activites than great it will help them. Ripely gives a big example to her side by showing us, the reader, that a Texas schooled had shut down their whole football program including many other sports. The reason they did this is because the school was running out of money. But before this the science lab was shut down, didn't have a music program in years, cut many teachers, But after all of that the school kept all its sports. The flaw of this is shown when kids start to become very angry at the school, they don't have anything to look forward to after school. Which can be very depressing for many kids because they need the after school sports. If people started taking out high school sports the kids would not be very happy with it. All students need to have a chance to be be in after school sports.