Educational Institution or Sports Hall of Fame?
Why are American students doing so poorly compared to the rest of the world?
Walking into the Premont school, a top football school in Texas, you are greeted with a litter of shining plaques and towering trophies, all dedicated to their hugely successful players. You see their faces in the school news and hear all the students talking about the “big game vs rival #1 on Friday night”, and soon you see those players as they and everyone else sees them: as celebrities.
But then ask ourselves the question, educational institution or sports hall of fame? And while we know that these students also have a “study life”, it’s pretty clear that some see their schools as the latter.
After all, when students are incentivized by hundreds of thousands of dollars in college scholarships, and a claim to fame, who wouldn’t try to get the most out of their situation?
However, the infatuation with sports goes a lot deeper than simple dollars and cents. We see a real problem arise when the schools let it interfere with what they were actually created to do: teach. One way in which sports interfere with education itself is from school administrations keeping school start times early, so that afterschool sports can be played in the daylight. A study from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine came out decades ago with concrete evidence that students will not start properly functioning until 9 am. Since then, numerous studies have come out, confirming this same idea: regardless of race or gender, a student cannot retain as much information, reach peak critical thinking, or take tests before 9 am. Yet, with full knowledge of this idea, the average start time for schools is still 7:45. Now, I’m not saying that this itself is completely wrong, but the fact that schools sacrifice success in the classroom simply for sports is absurd and unfair to students. Less focus must be given to sports, even from school administrators.
Now time for the bad news.
While we have superior resources, funding, and teachers going towards our education systems, we still are in the middle of the international wolf pack when it comes to education. Our students perform, at best, mediocre when compared to those of other first world countries such as Japan, Singapore, Finland, and Germany. The most notable difference in education systems between American schools and those of other top performing countries around the world is the influence of the athletics programs. In other countries, sports don’t exist like they do here. Students may kick a ball around every weekend, but no one devotes hours a week to train for huge interscholastic competitions. Instead, there is a much bigger emphasis on education. Students in those countries are very focused on their educations, especially in places such as China and Singapore. While there is no concrete evidence that shows that sports itself are the reason for the American disparage in education internationally, because of the fact that we spend more money per student and have a lower student to teacher ratio than most countries in the world, and the only other large difference is the prevalence of sports, it can be pretty safe to say that our overbearing athletics programs do have some sort of negative impact on our education system.
In America, we see almost the exact opposite of what goes on in countries with better education systems than ours. We see students not doing homework because they came back so late from their sports game. We see students that have to leave class early, missing out on instruction, so they have time to go to their far away sports game and back without getting home too late. If they applied the same motivation and drive to their schoolwork, who knows what can be accomplished?
Actually, Premont public schools know. Remember the huge level of intense fanaticism that went on there? Well, after undergoing massive budget cuts, the school’s superintendent decided to cut all sports programs- and the surprising results are actually not so surprising; attendance has gone up, the graduation rate went up 30%, and over 80% of students are passing classes, as opposed to 40%. The Principal even noted, “It was calm. There was a level of energy devoted to planning and lessons, to after-school tutoring. I saw such a difference.” We can clearly see that the extra focus on schoolwork can bring huge change in the favor of better results in the classroom.
Hear me out now: despite all that has been said, sports may actually have some sort of role in a good education system. While sports may have originally been introduced over a century ago in an attempt to keep American boys big and strong compared to the then recent influx of Russian and German immigrant children, they could potentially serve a role in students’ capabilities. Playing sports can teach students humility, dedication, teamwork, and the ideals of fair play. Even more, feeling like you belong, or having a sense of accomplishment or value may give underperforming students the morale they need to do well in school. You may not want to buy into this idea, however these emotional traits are proven to exist more in those who play sports versus those who don’t. Another advantage of sports is the impact of physical activity and fitness, which can definitely improve students’ cognitive performance, as seen in a 2010 article in the Washington Post. In this article, it was shown that there were linked between exercise and exam success: for every extra 17 minutes boys exercised, and 12 minutes for girls, there was an increase on performance on exams in English, Science, and Mathematics. In addition, other studies performed by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention have shown that there is a positive relationship between a school’s success in sports matches and their students’ GPAs- in some schools.
This clarification is extremely important. In schools that are in higher income locations and have better school systems overall, student athletes do have higher GPAs than their non-athletic counterparts. Think of the ivy league schools- among the top universities in the world. There, there is also a large sports culture, yet the students are extremely bright.
This is probably a result of the benefits listed above. However, in poorly funded, lower quality schools, student athletes perform worse in class than those who do not play sports, which explains why students in the Premont schools were not doing so hot in the classroom. This may be because the benefits of sports are not as much of a benefit as putting hard work into learning and studying. It can be seen that emphasis on education and learning is the majority of what drives academic success, with sports programs providing an added bonus. But when students are not putting that emphasis on schoolwork, and spending unproportionate time and energy on sports, they are not as well off. So how can we make sure students can have the benefits of sports while still focusing the majority of their efforts on their schoolwork?
The minimum GPA needed to play sports in public schools is a 2.0/4.0. This means that students must have grades around 70%. In other words, students barely need to be passing their classes in order to spend 2 or more hours each night on the field instead of doing homework. Having such low standards encourages students to continue to perform at a mediocre level in the classroom.
Raising this requirement to something much more rigorous, such as a 3.0 (mostly B’s), might be the reality check and motivation both students and school teachers alike may need. Students who are not getting the grades and education they need will be forced to improve themselves in order to play the sport they love. In this way, those who have a true affinity and passion for a sport will be inclined to work harder and perform better in relation to the international standards that the U.S. is placed so poorly in. This also works on both sides of the wall- schools that want to provide sports programs must first improve their curriculum and teaching so students can get better grades.
By keeping a required GPA that makes sure that students are working hard instead of simply “getting by” in class, we also allow for them to receive the benefits that sports do provide. Besides self-esteem and belonging, sports also increase a student’s social capital (the ability to foster relationships among different people) by improving teamwork, social skills, and leadership abilities. These qualities may be important in the working world, as working in a group setting requires all of these traits. However, in the working world, networking and relations can only go so far. Social capital can obviously be much more effective if one has academic capital, which is a strong background in basic subjects and related content. Under the current system, many students do not have this academic capital- but this can be solved by simply raising our standards for students and forcing them to grow as learners so they can do well after high school.
Some may see this sort of proposal be a detriment to our unique culture of sports and entertainment. What I am proposing may take away from the intense focus that students have on sports at such a young age, but this is a necessary sacrifice that must be made in the name of better education. However, the true goal of this change in standard will be to use participation in sports as a motivator for higher grades, instead of a distractor.
While we can see that there are benefits to having large athletics programs in high schools, it is clear that there is a line that comes with these benefits. As the name “student athlete” suggests, a teenagers focus must first be on working hard in classes, and then, on afterschool sports, unlike what is currently going on in schools. By instituting a higher required GPA, we will be able to curb the huge fanaticism over high school sports and encourage focus on what is really important. Administrators will have to make accommodations in school rules that emphasize focus on education, and more importantly, students will be performing much better in class. This will close the bridge between America’s education system versus that of other countries in the world and ensure that American students are the best and the brightest they can be, keeping our country an intellectual and innovative powerhouse for years to come.