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I think you make some good points. Athletics at school are great for all the various reasons you mentioned. The problem, from my experience of going to school

I think you make some good points. Athletics at school are great for all the various reasons you mentioned. The problem, from my experience of going to school in Kansas and Oklahoma, is that you have all these small towns where academics take a back seat to sports. I lived in three different towns until graduating high school. All three towns cared more for football and basketball than any curriculum. I graduated in 2008. The textbook we used had no mention of Bill Clintons presidency and were from around 1991. We didn't have a rigorous math curriculum. I had Alegebra 1 and 2, Geometry, and Trig. There was no pre calculus or calculus. My first year in a CS degree program, I had never seen the symbol for a summation before. The district spent a fortune on raising funds or using tax payer money (both) on keeping the athletic facilities functioning. Yet we couldn't afford to have better classes or teach math at all. It wasn't even encouraged. Athletics at school are a good thing. Over index in one area is utter stupidity.

deadmetheny 8y ago
>Athletics at school are a good thing. Over index in one area is utter stupidity. I completely agree - there's a huge problem when athletics become the focus of a school district, and this should absolutely be addressed. I mostly just wanted to point out in my previous post that this isn't an unavoidable end point for athletics - I was fortunate in that I attended a high school that valued both academics and athletics, and feel both have enriched my life and the idea of dropping athletics for pure academics feels very short-sighted.