<p>No, I don’t feel left out. Neither my husband nor I attended football schools, our daughter is not at one and our rising senior has less than zero interest in attending a sports oriented school. Between all 7 members of our family, we have been to a total of 3 football games in our lives and all 3 tickets were given to us by the same person. We find football totally boring.</p>
<p>When my rising senior was in 7th grade, one of his teachers was a total football freak. The extra credit questions in his subject tests always dealt with college football games from the prior week. When my son never got any extra credit and other less capable students were getting better grades because they watched football, I actually tried watching some games and making notes. My son considered it cheating and refused to listen to my summaries. Finally, I filed a complaint with the school about it. The course was not gym, where football questions might be remotely appropriate. The teacher was directed to cease.</p>
<p>My rising sophomore was heavily recruited for football last year due to his imposing physique. I refused to sign the papers but to save his face, I told the school that it was only because of the metal plate in his ankle, which he broke playing baseball. The truth is, he doesn’t even know the rules of football and wouldn’t have played even without the plate.</p>
<p>PizzaGirl, you’re right; we do have the same alma mater; I forgot. When I was an undergrad, I went to one game per year. Not a big fan. </p>
<p>Actually, it wasn’t until after I had applied and was accepted that i started hearing about what the “Big Ten” is. I had no idea and didn’t care.</p>
<p>IMHO, the millions that some schools spend on their football team in an effort to elevate the reputation of the school is money well wasted.</p>
<p>Football is HUGE at the uni that my husband and I attended. That said, we didn’t watch footballs games when we attended and we have no interest in watching or reading about them now. </p>
<p>Schmaltz, are you sure Hawkette didnt put you up to this? (She was a poster who constantly extolled the value of big time spectator sports to the college experience.)</p>
<p>VH - when I was accepted was during the time that NU had the record for longest losing streak. I guess supposedly that was something to be ashamed of, but not as far as I was concerned.</p>
<p>WOW. It’s EXTRA CREDIT… if you don’t know the answer, you don’t get the EXTRA points. Surely those “less capable” students weren’t getting 100’s of extra credit points. Maybe they were getting good scores PLUS the extra credit points. </p>
<p>The things people will complain about… no wonder our schools have gone downhill according you all…</p>
<p>Our family joke is that all three of our jock boys went to the same school but in different cities–each school had 5-6000 undergrads, a real campus, was in a big city…and had no football team. S1 went to Emory in Atlanta; S2 went to the University of Denver, and S3 went to American University in DC.</p>
<p>My H has an entire collection of tee shirts “X School Football…Undefeated!”</p>
<p>Does he also have the shirts “X School Football… 0fer since 19xx” lol… </p>
<p>I always get a kick out of those shirts… then I remind them that they may well be undefeated, but they also have a 0.00% winning percentage in the sport too! </p>
<p>(math people, yes it would be “undefined” rather than zero, right?) :P</p>
<p>Why so snarky? My belief is that if a teacher wants to give extra credit points, that’s fine, but they should be related to the subject. If a student wants to do them, s/he can, and if not, they can ignore them.</p>
<p>In our SD, 7th grade science (which this was) counted towards getting into 8th grade honors science. My son routinely scored in the high 90’s with an occasional 100. Other kids were getting 10 points of extra credit a test for knowing FOOTBALL teams. They only took a limited number of students. It was unfair to kids like my son for them not to have the opportunity to score the maximum because of questions that had no connection to the curriculum. My son could not make the choice to answer them or not, he simply could not. If the teacher wanted to make up science problems using football as the basis, great, but asking a kid which player scored the most points in the X v Y game on Saturday has no academic relevance and does not reward studying for the subject. That’s why I complained and since the practice was stopped, I would guess that my point was valid.</p>
<p>It was not an instance of wanting my son to have the highest grade, just a high enough grade to make the cut. As anyone who has read my posts knows, my son is not motivated by grades but by academic challenge. He wanted to be in the advanced science class in grade 8 and I wanted him to have a fair shot at it - based on the course material.</p>
<p>I’m sorry… I forgot a science teacher is allowed to ONLY teach science. Interesting people demand students be exposed to music and arts, etc for the “whole picture” but if somebody brings sports into that “whole picture” people cry foul.</p>
<p>There are lots of reasons to go to a college football game that have nothing to do with football: sun, fresh air, music, food, drink, people watching, exercise (throwing the ol’ pigskin around), talking, networking, etc. I’ve tailgated at U of Michigan games and not even gone into the stadium. None of this was the point of the thread.</p>
<p>A subject teacher’s main focus should be on that subject; that is what my taxes are paying for my child to be taught. That said, I am all for teachers bringing in music, arts and even sports to liven up classes but extra credit should be based on information that the children are exposed to as part of the class. The only exception I see is if, for instance, the teacher said “There is a show on TV related to the course material and there may be some extra credit on the test about it.” If a child chooses to watch it and get the credit, fine. If not, equally fine. </p>
<p>This particular teacher did not use the football scores or rules to enhance his teaching of the course material; he just wanted to share his love of college football with the kids and that is not acceptable as a means for giving extra credit. If he had used football in the course and then asked extra credit about it, I would have had a different viewpoint because I do agree that different methods are needed to reach different students. This was not the case here.</p>
<p>How would you have felt if a science teacher asked extra credit questions about restaurant ratings, NASCAR or classical music that had nothing to do with the course materials? I would have had the same objection.</p>
<p>My kids went to a most unusual school district…there was a huge crossover among the various special interests at school, and all the kids and teachers supported each other. The school has about 750 students and is consistently rated one of the top in our state academically.</p>
<p>One son was a soccer captain whose team made the final 8, or better, in State each year. He also sang in the top level vocal ensemble and in an all-male group the kids put together on their own. When he performed, the entire soccer team (including coaches who were not teachers) were there–as were lots of kids from other teams ,etc.</p>
<p>At games, the whole vocal program, orchestra, etc., would show up. And CHANT. Loudly. And did you ever hear an entire string section “cheer” at a game? What a hoot!</p>
<p>So I sometimes don’t get the animosity on this site between “academics” and “jocks” because in my experience, they were all the same kids, and if they weren’t they were best friends anyway.</p>
<p>You should choose something more esoteric. </p>
<p>I went to Wellesley and the U of C. No football. At all.</p>
<p>I’ve been to precisely one college game in my life. (The Harvard/Yale game when I was about 6.) I’ve never been to a pro game. My football viewing is limited to portions of the Superbowl, if that. Even my S’s HS did not have football, for which I was profoundly grateful. (I confess that I did go to a HS with a perennially good football team, and one of my classmates was a HS All-American with a 4-year scholarship to Notre Dame. But that was a long time ago.)</p>
<p>And even <em>I</em> know what a first down is. :)</p>
<p>I’m female. DH & I attended college at an SEC school. Everyone in my family knows what a first down is and would be astounded that there is anyone who doesn’t. My kids have grown-up seeing the fun we have following our football team. The first son chose a different school. I happily paid the fee for his all-sports pass so he can enjoy cheering on his D1 sports teams. Neither of my kids (DS2 still in HS) would consider going to a college without D1 sports.</p>
<p>Cheering for your school sports teams is just such a fun, wholesome activity! I feel bad for the kids who don’t have that option.</p>
<p>I used to follow the football team when I was in college, and went to a couple of games a year. Yale had a pretty good team in the 1970’s, and usually won or came close to winning the Ivy League; they even sent a few players to the NFL. And I continued to go to the Harvard/Yale game for a few years after I graduated.</p>
<p>But that was all really because I had friends who were going, not because of any great love for football. I haven’t watched Yale play a game (in person or on TV), or followed the team, in at least 30 years.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that college football is not a particularly popular sport in New York City and the surrounding area anyway. I never hear people talking about it. Baseball, pro football, professional and college basketball, and even ice hockey, are far more popular around here, and have been forever.</p>
<p>Much of it stems from those who are super-academic being upset because athletics have the money they do. Universities are learning institutions and some believe that should be limited to academics only. Others view learning institutions as being so much more than just classes. Sports, fine arts, Greek Life, recreation, etc all are included. </p>
<p>Personally I don’t care what other people do. But I get tired of being looked down on or hearing the whining because I am a huge sports fan. So much of a sports fan I have chosen to use it for a career…</p>
</p>
Have you seen the movie, “Harvard Beat Yale, 31/31”? (Score approximate.) It’s hilarious. I recommend it highly.</p>