> I'll give my unpopular opinion here: eliminate all extracurricular sports in American schools. There is too much money, time, and resources spent on materials

> I'll give my unpopular opinion here: eliminate all extracurricular sports in American schools. There is too much money, time, and resources spent on materials, facilities, staff, and programming that only benefit a minority of the student population. > In other parts of the world there are sports clubs to accommodate those kids (and, eventually and more importantly, post-school adults) eager or talented enough to push their limits, and they can do it after school or on weekends. But that is what the author of this article is writing about, expensive travel teams. > The article above fails to mention the connection why a lot of parents subject their kids to year-round training. They're looking for the golden ticket to get their kid a college scholarship or, even less likely, fame and fortune in the NCAA and beyond. That system needs to be dismantled. In my experience, which is not the same as analyzing data, it is almost never the parents pushing their kids to compete at the highest level. It's expensive, it's time consuming, and parents are usually happy when their kid gives it up. It's more like the kid sees what other kids are doing and wants to do the same thing. That puts the parents in a tough position.