Non competative competative sports

[HYHYBT]

Games that reward different skills... supposedly, that's good for employment as well: find something you're good at, then find a way to get paid for it. So all I have to do now is find a way to get paid for being delayed leaving the house for the most incredibly stupid reasons, and making a wrong turn in a route I've driven hundreds of times before and not realizing it for miles, and I'm all set!

Yes, those are my *best* skills.

As for cheerleaders... well, I don't remember who all of them were at my school, but one of them was valedictorian. And no, it wasn't because the rest of us were stupid

[Amanita]

About nobody being given praise for doing a good job, and the "we're all winners, nobody should compete" meme, just look up the short story "Harrison Bergeron"

[Lace Neil Singer]

I'll admit that my knowledge of American high school is sketchy, but I remember someone telling me that the members of the football team and cheerleading squad could only be there as long as their grades were up; if their grades dropped, then they would be. If that's true, it seems to show that not all of them are stupid.

[Plaidman]

I'll admit that my knowledge of American high school is sketchy, but I remember someone telling me that the members of the football team and cheerleading squad could only be there as long as their grades were up; if their grades dropped, then they would be. If that's true, it seems to show that not all of them are stupid.

Assuming you get teachers that are moral, and not easily convinced to /pass/ their students so they can play. I've met plenty of students that slept through class, told the teacher off, never did any work, and yet they still could play whatever sports they wanted, to bring glory to school. They call it school spirit.

Sure, teachers are suppose to be, well, teachers, but not all of them care enough to do what they're suppose to do.

[Greenday]

I'll admit that my knowledge of American high school is sketchy, but I remember someone telling me that the members of the football team and cheerleading squad could only be there as long as their grades were up; if their grades dropped, then they would be. If that's true, it seems to show that not all of them are stupid.

In my old high school, the grade requirement was that you weren't failing two or more classes. As long as you weren't failing more than one class, you could play. Not exactly a challenge.

Freshman year football, our coach grouped us together and asked us who was failing at least one class. Everyone but me and two other kids raised our hands.

[KnitShoni]

Assuming you get teachers that are moral, and not easily convinced to /pass/ their students so they can play. I've met plenty of students that slept through class, told the teacher off, never did any work, and yet they still could play whatever sports they wanted, to bring glory to school. They call it school spirit.

Sure, teachers are suppose to be, well, teachers, but not all of them care enough to do what they're suppose to do.

Yeah, I don't remember that happening at my school. I've heard about it, but as far as I could see, our sports teams had to do the work, because the coaches didn't want them on the team if they didn't, and they let them know they could find plenty of guys just as talented to replace them.

ETA: We also had the requirement that you couldn't be failing any classes if you wanted to participate in anything, so everyone had to have at least a 70 to do anything.

[AdminAssistant]

At my school it was a 2.0 GPA to be involved in anything extra-curricular. No real challenge, but I will credit my high school with not bullying teachers or letting students slide. Of course, it was a very very small high school where everyone knew everyone else, so it was easy to keep tabs.

However, my undergrad was notoriously bad about harassing professors into giving student athletes passing grades for no good reason. That made a lot of folks mad, because they were all already getting much better scholarships than the top academic scholarships...and all to be the laughingstock of our conference. The athletic program was also a huge drain on the academic budget, as they took the maximum amount they could from general funds to try to support it.

My current school does a much better job about keeping an eye on athletes. Coaches personally check to make sure athletes are going to class, and professors report their grades 3-4 times a semester. As far as I know, no one has ever been hassled by a coach to change a grade. And this is one of a handful of athletic programs that actually pays for itself. In fact, it makes a profit, which gets filtered over to the academic side. It's a rare case, but it's nice.

[Racket_Man]

Assuming you get teachers that are moral, and not easily convinced to /pass/ their students so they can play. I've met plenty of students that slept through class, told the teacher off, never did any work, and yet they still could play whatever sports they wanted, to bring glory to school. They call it school spirit.

Sure, teachers are suppose to be, well, teachers, but not all of them care enough to do what they're suppose to do.

I had that very thing in one of my HS classes. the team's quaterback was in my Psychology class and was not doing very good (D average I believe) but yet he was still allowed to play every game. I found out by complete accident what his grade was. He and I shared the same first name. when my parents went in for the mid sememster parent teacher conference, they told the teacher my first name only. she got a sour look on her face and said something to the effect of "He's not doing well at all. borderline D/fail". my parents must have looked so shocked (and I was at that time a GOOD high B low A student) the teacher asked for the last name. when they said <lastname> the teacher apologized and changed her attitude 180 degrees and said he iIS DOING good (like A level work). it was NOT hard to figure out who the other <firstname> was.


It was also common knowledge (but not spoken and very unofficial) that the football players got their detentions "fixed"

This from a team, the last 2 years of HS got the crap beat outta them every game. they even lost (got real beaten up) to a team whose record up to that point was 0 wins and 43 losses

we knew there were teachers that were pressured to "barely pass" certain students so they could play sports (mostly football). our requirement was C average in ALL classes (yeah right)

[fireheart17]

My sister's seen this to a lesser extent. Slight background, when I was in highschool, my main contributions were through music, my sister's are through art (she's still in highschool.)

Whenever we were pulled out of classes for special events (which included going to the primary schools to encourage Year 7's to come to our school next year, school plays, long-term school projects etc.) we had to have a release form signed by the teachers whose lessons we'd be missing.

Apparaently my sister had a LOT of resistance getting forms signed when she was working on the art project for her school (it's a good mural actually), and I encountered some degree of resistance when I had to sign forms to be released from classes to attend performance rehearsals and the actual performances themselves.

Yet the school sports folk had their forms signed no questions asked.

[Ginger Tea]

About nobody being given praise for doing a good job, and the "we're all winners, nobody should compete" meme, just look up the short story "Harrison Bergeron"

I saw a TV Movie called Harrison and I'm assuming its the same story
"we are not born equal it is up to the government to render us so." or words to that extent, I liked it.