Athletics, school spirit

daaaaad
Tue, 17 Jan 2006 02:18:13 +0000

Jeff, following is an opinion about athletes as students that I share. I understand why you might feel as you do but that stereotype is not what my daughter is experiencing. Her experience is much like what is posted below.

This was posted by “Soozievt” in another thread about world class athletes as students. (Sorry, I don’t know how to link directly to their post, so here’s a copy and paste job.)

Soozievt:

"I certainly don’t have kids at the level of those figure skating competitors and yes it is amazing the schedules they keep, while also maintaining excellent achievements in academics.

"While my kids are not on that national scale, they are heavily involved in their areas of passion…sports and the arts… and do keep intense schedules, one of whose involves travel as well. They are also still high academic achievers. I don’t think they are unusual at all. One is involved in theater and also is in a rigorous professional degree program with many hours, not even including her shows/rehearsals. I find that she is not alone but that her peers who also are in this field often ALSO tend to be excellent students. Other kid is in varsity collegiate sports with an intense schedule, plus travel, while also in a demanding Ivy school where she maintains high grades. She also is not alone as I find many on her team who also excel in academics and she wasn’t the only Academic All American on the team either.

"My opinion is that those who are very commited to a sport or an art, tend to be driven, motivated, and passionate about it and set high standards for themselves. That same “approach” is how they also approach academics. While it seems amazing how they can still perform so well in academics with such demaning athletic or arts pursuits, it is that same drive or approach…they use it for everything.

"While there is a tendency on CC to think of athletes as “lesser academic types”, and maybe some students like that exist, MANY athletes are terrific students because they are excellent at time management, driven, motivated to excel, set high standards of achievement, and so on. Some of the best students in our high school were also some of our school’s best athletes. The kids who had the least free time to do homework due to athletic or arts commitments, were still the ones excelling in the classroom. For instance, I have a kid who was val and played three varsity sports and was also heavily commited to performing arts…and the kids ranked in the top five of the class also were in several varsity sports. It was just that sort of kid who did well in school too. The ones who hung out after school and had more time available, were the ones who were not the best students, in our community. Same with the theater and band kids…huge outside commitments, but some of the top students in the school. I see this amongst my kids’ friends from other places as well. Those who are exceling in their sport and their arts, are also very good students.

“How those kids on a national playing field do it, does seem amazing but I think that same inner motivation, work ethic and drive carries over from their sport to their academics. Just my observation from personal experience, albeit not quite at that level.”