High school sports became an outlet for youth that provided a structured environment. High school sports taught discipline and core values such as practice and teamwork. These values are believed to be important for student athletes to learn in order to be successful people in society. High school sports became an outlet which involved physical activity. The objective of high school sport is to ultimately win. But coaches also praise athletes who receive athletic scholarships. Coaches sometimes push the idea of practice and winning over academics. Which in the long run is detrimental to the student athlete. Although that athlete may receive a scholarship he/she may not succeed academically in college. This is the reason for colleges requiring their athletes to have a specific GPA and also meet a certain number of study hall hours per week Although we recognize this has a problem. We continue to praise student athletes and treat them like celebrities.
A solution I could think of is maybe we should raise the minimum GPA requirement to 2.5 instead of 2.0 That way we can insure that athletes are taking their academics more seriously and that they aren't just barely getting by.
I agree that the GPA requirement should be raised, but I think it should be even higher. A 3.0. Although I know student athletes are very busy people, I think that would force them to work equally hard in the class as they do for their sport. It would also teach them time management skills and place a greater importance on schools and grades instead of just doing what they have to to "get by" and be able to play.
ReplyDelete-Tyler Pigford