PLN 6 Redo

In her article, “The Case Against High-School Sports”, Amanda Ripley examines the pros and cons of high schools dropping sports. Ripley says that dropping sports will significantly improve students focus in and around school. Ripley bases her argument off of the situation in other countries like Korea as well as some exclusive schools here in the U.S. School’s without athletics score higher on international tests. Ripley argues that American schools should drop athletics to make up for sub-par academics.

In Amanda Ripley’s “The Case Against High-School Sports”, Ripley correctly portrays the idea of American schools dropping athletics to pursue better academics because in other more progressive countries, where athletics are held outside of the school, test scores and student participation are skyrocketing. There are many benefits to this plan. Safety concerns would go down. Less students would be injured. Schools can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding and spending. Gear would not need to be purchased, fields would not need to be constructed, referees and coaches would not need to be hired, “$27,000 for athletic supplies, $15,000 for insurance, $13,000 for referees, $12,000 for bus drivers”(Ripley). The money spent on football alone could pay for countless other things in the school to boost academic prowess. However, sports have been a major part of American culture for over 100 years. The removal of these sports from schools would become an uproar. Sports are rooted in tradition,"In life, as in a football game," Theodore Roosevelt wrote in an essay on "The American Boy" in 1900"(Ripley). If Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th president, who was in office over 100 years ago writes about sports effect on American society then sports has to have left a lasting effect in the last 115 years. But America needs to make room for change. As a nation, society need to stand up for academic shortfalls and drop athletics to focus on academics. America ranks 31st in the world on international tests on youth. If this trend of focus on athletics gains more of a following, then this country will have another lost generation, but this time lost in the dream of playing professional sports. That dream has clouded their eyes during school and now leaves them with a poor, if existent, high school education. In Amanda Ripley's article "The Case Against High-School Sports", Ripley demonstrates the idea of booting out American athletics in schools to help with bad academic performances.