Amanda Ripley The Case Against High School Sports

Amanda Ripley argues in her article “The Case Against High School Sports,” that sports interfere with a student’s life in a negative way. Ripley believes that schools are not putting enough focus towards their educational aspect. She focuses heavily on the fact that the cost of keeping these sports funded is far too high for them to stay in place. She believes that if America is to remain competitive with other nations, sports must be taken out of high schools. Although Ripley provides new insight on the issue that schools are too involved with athletics, she does ignore some of the factors that make them worthwhile to keep. Ripley displays that America is falling far behind in its education standards on a global scale. She starts her case …show more content…
While these points are well researched and convincing, flaws can be found in all of them. Throughout the essay she relies on drastic examples to support her case. Her examples include schools like Premont High School, which was on the verge of closing down, and in need of immediate change. Even in her overall culmination, which is meant to bring together all the problems with high schools sports, she decides to use an example of a college. Some of the information Ripley provides is severely limited, telling only the facts that will make her argument stronger. Even further than this, issues can be seen in her very reasoning as she draws conclusions based on a cause and effect pattern that doesn’t always …show more content…
What she does not consider is the influence sports hold over the atmosphere of high schools. To simply abolish them would lead to the eerily quiet halls of Premont High School mentioned by Ripley. In a school with failing standards in education obviously steps need to be made to improve that aspect of a student’s life, but taking away sports is not the answer. Rather it would be a punishment that takes away the unique culture available to high school students. The “Case Against High School Sports” should not convince the reader that our iconic high school athlete should be forgotten. Ripley fails to recognize the other factors to be taken into account on the international level, ignores the scientifically proven benefits of sports, and through her use of poor examples takes away credibility from herself. High school sports have become part of the culture that families across America unite into one community for. It’s a cause that articles like Amanda Ripley’s cannot