In reality sports are great for "school spirit" and pride. Most of us grew up geting our ass kicked on dirt and stone fields or on our street. For grass we headed over to the golf course.
Then along came lawyers and artificial turf. As for grades improving grades - well none of us here have any numbers to back it up - maybe an example here and there. It comes down to not how well you play on the field - but how well you behave, learn and study. Like a playbook - for many it MIGHT be a way into college or staying out of trouble - but for 99.99 percent - the sport will not be their career. It's the books and learning how to read, study, write and present yourself in the real world. No coach, no catering to. For those that want to take some time and apply science, there are many studies out there with regards to sports and academics. Hope they keep the field up. If it works for x number of kids per year, then good. Old NY TIME article: http://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/16/sports/athletics-playing-sports-dosen-t-lift-grades-study-finds.html Although participating in high school athletics tends to keep student-athletes in school, leads them to participate in other extracurricular activities and makes them feel more popular than nonathletes, it has virtually no immediate effect on academic achievement for most minority-group students. And it has even less impact on their later success in college and the work force. Those were among the key findings of an extensive statistical study released yesterday in Manhattan by the Women's Sports Foundation. The study, ''Minorities in Sports,'' which was funded by Miller Lite, represented a detailed statistical analysis of data gathered by the United States Department of Education in a broader study, ''High School and Beyond.'' That study started with a representative national sample of 30,000 high school sophomores in 1980 and tracked them for six years. The new study focused on 18 groups, the various combinations of three racial designations (black, white and Hispanic), three geographic settings (urban, suburban and rural) and the two sexes. ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: asburypark-dig...@yahoogroups.com asburypark-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: asburypark-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/