You Responded: Depending. I think the educational part should remain. The part where kids are forced to run a mile in 30 degree weather needs to go.
My Counter: I agree, I am not a fan of pneumonia myself. Run the mile indoors. If you can’t run a mile indoors your only excuse is being old, ill, disabled or dead.
Your Rebuttal: It should be about education, not about making kids do exercise. If it’s a public school, that should be left to the parents.
My Counter: Physical EDUCATION. It is education, do you want to be healthy? If so, you need to learn the proper ways to lift, run, walk, stand, sit, etc… Besides, what is your alternative, sitting in a classroom for seven hours a day (less the lunch period) with no physical activity? Most people can not just wake up one day and know how to do calculus, to the same point, most people can not just wake up one day knowing the proper way to physically take care of themselves. As far as the parents are concerned, fine, if you want your kid to opt-out of Physical Education and increase the possibility (I am not making a generalization that this will happen, please note that) of having a fat, disgusting, unhealthy and out of shape kid, go for it. If you want to leave it up to anyone, leave it up to the kid.
My Counter: Community College!? How many community colleges have actual football teams, it has to be less than half! I never said anything about community college, all I said was they have to get through the first two years with passing grades, they can be drafted from universities without graduating. “Most likely completely blew off,” I apologize for saying this but that is a close-minded statement. You are aware that collegiates only have football season one out of two semesters, right?
Your Rebuttal: A.) I assumed by two years of college you meant acquiring an associates degree which is usually done through a community college. However, being the first two years of college, the courses wouldn’t vary too greatly either way.
B.) Have you honestly never heard of grades being illegally altered for the sake of keeping the football players in the school? It happens quite frequently, because when you go through high school only caring about football you tend to not know much when you get to college. Luckily, they don’t have to because the entertainment industry is obviously more important than academics.
My Counter: Fair enough, it would still be basic and general courses, but basic and general courses are better than no higher education at all, wouldn’t you agree? Very few football players, “…only care about football,” maybe they are not focused exclusively on academics, but one extra-curricular activity often begets other extra-cuuricular activities, football helps you develop bonding and social skills. Football teaches you lessons about life, how to treat your opponents with respect, how to succeed and still maintain your dignity, how not to crumble in the face of adversity, and most importantly, (in my opinion) how to fail and still maintain your dignity.
I wrote: It is also worth mentioning that colleges award so many football scholarships because college football brings in big-time revenue.
You Responded: Bingo.
My Counter: Hey, money is money, you don’t have money, you don’t have as much of an ability to get new or updated facilities.
Your Rebuttal: Money is money as education is education. Private universities are heavily funded by donations for one thing. At the same time, the football teams can still exist, but the matter at hand is that most of the players get an easy ticket through the system. The money can still be acquired in a fair manner.
My Counter: “Most of the players…,” by most I am assuming you mean a simple majority of the high school or college players get an “Easy ticket through the system,” I hate to be like this, but I would counter that statement by requesting you back it up with research and cite your sources. I am not saying that you are necessarily wrong, I just believe you have made a statement that goes beyond personal opinion and asserts what I believe to be a non-fact.
I wrote: I can’t speak for every high school in the country, but I can safely say that almost all of the college stadiums that get built pay for themselves and then some, and result in revenue that is used in other academic areas
You Responded: This is because they are mostly private universities. At that point it doesn’t matter in terms of spending. At my local high school, they literally built an indoor practice arena for the football team while the math classes are still taught in trailers, and this was at a public school.
My Counter: Your local high school is poorly managed, the PTA, and all of the administrative staff should be immediately replaced with people that are not idiots. However, you should not base an entire opinion, an entire belief, on one isolated example. I went to three different high schools, I played football at three different high schools, (I was also on the Debate team, the French Club, and the Culinary Arts Club) and I never learned Math while inside a trailer, although, I did practice football outside in all three instances.
Your Rebuttal: Yes, it is certainly poorly managed, along with tons of other schools in the same respect. This is the issue at hand. It needs to change.
My Counter: Agreed, in an academic institution, education should always come first.
I Wrote: I’d also like to ask you another another question: Let’s say a school needs a new science lab, what is financing this lab, admissions from the debate competitions?
You Responded: Tax money.
My Counter: I don’t know if you have a ton of money that you can spread all over the place, or if you don’t care where your money goes, but if there is a way to finance something that does not involve taking MY money, then I am usually all for it. Do not misunderstand me, I vote, “Yes,” to the school levies and everything when they come up and I understand that it is both appropriate and necessary for some of my money to be taxed for use in public schools, but if I can choose between 1% of my earnings and 2.5% (Or whatever it would be) of my earnings, I like the 1%.
Your Rebuttal: We are talking about public schools. The tax money can either:
A.) Fund some huge football/sports related events and buildings which can in the future help fund academic benefits.
OR
B.) The money can simply skip the needless middle man and directly fund the academic stuff, as is what school is supposed to be.
My Counter: If you directly fund academic stuff that does not bring in more revenue than what it was used to fund you have taken a loss. If you fund sports related events that bring in revenue to the extent that they pay for themselves, and pay for other things, you have gained. It is simple, you use money to make more money.
MY STATEMENT: There are also some (very few, but some) private and public high schools that do not have football teams.
My main point is, as long as the football revenues are the only thing that are paying for the football scholarships, go for it because you have no reason not to. And if these kids are blowing off their education and do not make the NFL, then their degrees will be worthless pieces of paper in the real world anyway.
Your Rebuttal: They also take up spaces in the school’s population which could otherwise be filled by someone with some REAL potential.
My Counter: You would just as soon persecute anyone that played high school football. How can you assume that football players have no academic potential, that they are just, “taking up space?” Besides, the kids with, “real potential,” benefit from the sports events because as we discussed earlier, much of this revenue goes to them indirectly. By the way, are you aware that some students with, “real potential,” work their way through college with work study programs, and oftentimes they are the employees at these sports events?
It is also worth mentioning that both college and high school football create jobs, maintenance people, groundspeople, snack vendors, janitors, construction workers (When stadiums are being built/renovated/repaired) gatekeepers, security guards, announcers etc…
Your Rebuttal: I can’t disagree with that, however I don’t think it justifies what goes into it.
Edit: This can also potentially cost someone who could cure cancer their career. Academics>entertainment.
My Counter: Not justifiable? Let me ask you a question. If we stopped all public college and high school sports events right now, this minute, just flat-out outlawed them, what do you think that would do to the economy, not to mention the unemployment rate?
Someone who could cure cancer? That someone wouldn’t be the person who, “…go through high school only caring about football…tend not to know much when you get to college…take up spaces in the school’s population which could otherwise be filled by someone with Real potential.,” those wouldn’t be the potential cancer-curers you are speaking of, would they?
And, if you are not talking about the football player him/her self but talking about someone missing a space in a school because it went to an undeserving football player, let me tell you something, if they are smart enough to be the person that finds a cure for cancer and they are focused, they will go to college somewhere and not be left out.