Sports Should Be Allowed In Schools Essay

To be or not To Be: Should Sports be allowed in Schools? Recently, there has been speculation within the education community as to whether or not sport programs should be allowed to continue as an extracurricular activity. Typically, any high school in the country has a team for any and every sport available. However, there have been arguments, such as the one made by Amanda Ripley in her article: “School Should Be About Learning, Not Sports” that suggest sports programs do not benefit students. Kevin Kniffin, on the other hand, argues that sport programs are beneficial and have a positive effect on students in his article: “High School Athletes Gain Lifetime Benefits.” My opinion agrees with that of the latter article. Having sport programs in a student’s educational environment provides many different benefits to students such as promoting a sense of self-confidence and respect, giving them an advantage when applying for a job, and motivating the students to better themselves and behave at a higher standard. First of all, it was researched and proven by Kevin Kniffin that student-athletes are held to a higher …show more content…
Amanda Ripley states: “In the world’s smartest countries, school is about learning. Full stop.” Though she undoubtedly has a point, however, what good is knowledge without the morals and camaraderie provided by the aid of high school sport programs? The United States may not be the highest in academic achievement, but we teach how to be genuinely productive and respectful members of society, aided by the sports programs in schools. Within the opposing article, the author documents a portion of her interview with an exchange student from Finland, who speculates that school spirit is a huge difference from the serious “education only” system in his homeland. This proves that sport programs in high school also bring the students together for a common