Should Students Be Allowed To Play Public School Sports Analysis

The benefits of extracurricular programs for high schoolers are too numerous to count. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) relates extracurricular activities to a “well-rounded” education in that it helps reinforce the concepts that students learn in the classroom, as well as gives students “the opportunity to apply academic skills in a real-world context.” NCES also claims that, “These activities offer opportunities for students to learn the values of teamwork, individual and group responsibility, physical strength and endurance, competition, diversity, and a sense of culture and community.” Although we can’t all agree on how children should be educated, most can agree that if children want to participate in extracurricular

No student should have to make the definitive choice between academics or extracurricular activities; they should be able to participate in both while still in high school because it is often during these years that students explore different fields of study and start to find what it is they love. Holly Epstein released a blog post, published by the New York Times, titled “Should Home-Schoolers Be Allowed to Play Public School Sports?” In her blog post, Epstein depicts a story about a home-schooled boy, Patrick, who is a resident of Virginia. Patrick expresses his disappointment in not being able to play football at the local high school and explains, “‘I just want to be part of the community. You shouldn’t have to pick between athletics and academics.’” My local high-school offers freshman and sophomore students a minimal number of classes but requires for seniors to be full-time students at the school. So, by the time students reach their graduating year they’re no-longer allowed to be home-schooled if they want to continue with public-school programs. This gets home-school students foot in the door yet traps them into making a hard decision in the end. It’s unfair to offer one student certain privileges while denying another student those same privileges when the parents of both students pay the same amount of

Teachers have become more concerned about teaching their students to pass the test because the school budget depends on that definitive. This results in a lack of concern for the students themselves as individual thinkers. Most of my friends attended public-school and I have heard countless accounts of the atrocities displayed by public-school staff and the lack of attention that teachers seem to give. High-school is supposed to prepare students for college; yet the lazy and careless countenance that some teachers hold does exactly the opposite. Many college students struggle to get-by their Freshman year of college because they have become entitled through the coddling that they received via public-schools. It is incredibly hard for students to learn while in a negative environment, especially when the leaders – teachers – are the ones creating that negative forcefield. Public-schools are also famous for the amount of drama that is produced on a daily basis. Children are strongly influenced by those that they are around, and a child who attends public-school is around the same people all day long, five days a week. Indefinitely, their attitudes and mindsets will be shaped by their peers and teachers. This could have a positive effect on the students, but so often those attitudes that children