Amanda Ripley's The Case Against High School Sports

Around the world many would say that American sports are taken much more serious and are much more involved than other countries. Some critics argue that the superiority of sports in America conflict with other issues such as in “The Case Against High School Sports” by Amanda Ripley. She makes a bold statement arguing that high school sport students become negligent in education within the American society. However, there is no correlation between low test scores and participation in sports in America; after school activities such as sports keep students out of trouble, and being involved in sports teaches students the lesson of balancing major conflicting events. Amanda Ripley argues that sports in America is why education in the United States has lower test scores than other countries such as South Korea and Finland. She states that other countries focus more on education and less on sports which is the reason the U.S. lacks in education. “Athletics succeeded in distracting not just students but entire communities” she states, “Athletic fields became the culture centers of towns across America” (qtd. Ripley 1). For one school in Texas, Premont Independent School District, sports was …show more content…
Ripley 2). Ripley explains how the cost of traveling, equipment, teachers, and maintenance of the fields were costing so much money per player to run the activity (Ripley 2). Ripley uses a coach's statement to go against her argument of sports to show another side to the whole arguement. Budget cuts on sports have spread across the U.S. and show that education comes first (Ripley 3). Ripley wants to remind us that the transfer from “the rankings, the trophies, the ceremonies, and the pride” to “high-school academics” is something to look for so America do not differ from South Korea or Finland schools (Ripley