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Talk Sports Discuss everything that is sports-related, like MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA, MLS, NASCAR, NCAA sports and teams, trades, coaches, bad calls etc. |
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#1 | ||
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2005
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High School Sports Requirements
This is just hilarious to me. The past week or two has seen an influx of articles in the Minneapolis newspaper. They are complaining about grade requirements to entry fees. Now, this is slightly more "inner city" than where I live, so I may be being a little harsh but...
He was academically ineligible to play football last fall because of a Minneapolis City Conference rule requiring students to have a 2.0 grade-point average -- a C average -- either cumulatively or for the quarter before playing a sport. The conference eligibility guidelines are more stringent than state requirements, and the toughest in the metro area. Issue #1: The GPA requirement is a C average or 2.0. http://www.startribune.com/526/story/1183606.html Quote:
They go on to talk about how this prevents kids from getting college scholarships because they can't play football. If they can't get a C average in high school, how in the world will they pass college? Issue #2: In Minneapolis, there is a $70 participation fee. http://www.startribune.com/507/story/1194479.html Quote:
Also, if I'm not mistaken, if you are on the free/reduce lunch program, you get a discount on your entry fee too. PUHLEEEAAZZZZ! |
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#2 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Under The Christmas Fish
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Y'know, $70 is a lot of money to some people.
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#4 |
All Star Reserve
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Columbus, OH
Posts: 933
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We didn't have to pay anything to play football at my school. And I went to one of the poorest school districts in Columbus (Groveport Madison).
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#5 |
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Join Date: May 2003
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Beats me, but I don't have to worry about that for another ten years or so, by which time any info I dig up will be out-of-date.
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#6 |
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,505
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They are what they should be, zero, nada, zilch! |
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#7 |
All Star Starter
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Iahiodo a.k.a. the flyover
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"
A 2.0 isn't a cakewalk for some people, either. And those people are the ones who will be having the most miserable time in HS already. Take away sports on top of that and meet your newest dropout. The goal of HS isn't to send everyone to college, either. Teachers like to think that, but a lot of times if you can get a kid to graduate and get him a full-time job, that's a major victory. Last edited by Prodigal Son; 05-22-2007 at 10:07 PM. |
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#8 |
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Zürich, Switzerland
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We had to mantain a 2.5 GPA to play any sort of sports or participate in any sort of non-school activity
But I went to a private HS who more or less was able to make their own rules |
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#9 |
All Star Starter
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Iahiodo a.k.a. the flyover
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And students at private schools are about 20 times better equipped to get a 2.5 GPA than students at inner-city public schools.
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#10 | ||
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 777
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Quote:
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#11 |
All Star Starter
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Chi Suburbs now...
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My high school is on a 5.0 and up GPA scale (5.0 for honors students, everybody else is under a 5). To play, you have to be passing 5 classes, and your GPA can't be below 2.0.
For fees, until a few years ago, it was $40 per sport, unless you were a three sport athlete, then the spring sport was free. Now it's $140 unless you have a waiver stating why you can't afford that. |
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#12 | |
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Zürich, Switzerland
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You would think so, but we constantly had to fill in holes on our football, baseball, swimming, soccer and girls teams to make up for players who had to miss four weeks for 'bad' GPAs The curriculum I am assuming was also alot more difficult. The entire school was pretty anal about grades. If you got below a 2.0 during any 4 week period you were put on academic probation and had to attend 8 hours a week of extra study hall and tutoring. If you got below a 1.5 GPA you were placed on academic warning and if you did not get above a 1.5 GPA for the semester you were dissmissed from the school. |
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#13 |
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#14 |
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Join Date: Feb 2006
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To reply to the original post-
At my school, most sports were $25. Hockey was $40, but you had to bring your own gear. Somehow, the football team got new stuff every year, while we had to fund raise for new jerseys and still got charged more. Whatever, those football players are all hosers anyway. The idea of sports alongside public education is obstenibly to give the students something else within the school realm they can feel connected to. Numerous studies have shown that this feeling tends to improve classroom performance. I've personally witnessed this-I've had kids who are awesome during the season, and crap at all other times. I've also noticed that the kids who I coach in hockey improve greatly just knowing I'm in the building and if hear of any issues, they will have a rough night at practice-the principal can't skate 'em until they puke, but I can. ![]() If I recall, the MSHSL rule is for a 1.5 GPA, I know we had to make a 2.0 for hockey and I only know one kid who ever got named ineligible. But I can definately see some instances where a Special Needs kid could be considered successful with a D average (and the odd C). Even with accomodations, this is a realistic grade for them to get-but really, if they are in a situation where their GPA matters, the parents should really advocate for a Pass/Fail option on their IEP. Also, high school kids are different than elementary kids. Yes, elementary kids have their whole worlds in front of them. Some of these high school kids might be raising their elementary aged siblings (or kids, i guess). They are old enough to have very adult issues in their lives, and coming up with $70 or making a 2.0 might be the thing that makes it all unbearable. And the free/reduced lunch thing is often underreported, for any number of reasons. I think its a shame for the reaction towards this to be that the people negatively impacted by these policies should be able to figure something out. Why say that its ridiculous they are making it an issue when it'd be just as easy to look at it all and figure out a solution that brings us to our main goal of creating new generations of successful individuals and citizens? (And yes, I honestly thinkg Sports and other co-curricular activities pay a major role in this) |
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#15 | |
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The whole idea of being poor is that you don't have $70 to drop on non-essential items! For a single parent or a low wage-earner trying to support a family, $70 is a car payment, or a week's worth of groceries, or school supplies and some clothes, or any number of things that are more important than a sports participation fee. I'm really not exaggerating when I say that, with our family situation when I was in HS, $70 was a lot of money. A lot. Like...we'd live for an entire week off of $70. Getting $70 to drop on a sports fee would require saving up to pay it or borrowing it, and it would require sacrifices to afford it. I'm rather disappointed that it's the teacher out of the group who is criticizing the complaints about fees. Teachers are supposed to be well aware of the effects of poverty among students. |
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#16 | |
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![]() What I think is bad is that they're complaining about $70 when surrounding areas are paying over four times that. My parents paid around $15000 (and that is just for high school) for extra-curricular sports. My parents were paying something like $600 a semester. It's more of the complaining about having to pay $70 when everyone else pays way more. To play sports, $70 is a huge freaking bargain. I'm sorry, but you're right...you have to make sacrifices. Sports is EXTRA-curricular. A student is required school, to play sports is extra. If you are doing something extra, you should be held accountable for your school - because THAT is what they're at school for. I'm sorry that that is the way I feel. Because I'm a teacher should have nothing to do with my opinion. My opinion is no greater than yours, don't make it seem like it should be. |
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#17 |
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Wow, I had no idea people actually had to pay to play sports in HS. I graduated from HS in 98 and I played Baseball, Basketball, Football, Wrestling and threw Shot and Discus in track and field. I never paid a dime. I think it's a sham that they have school taxes, federal and state funds and yet they want to charge people to play sports...?
Then again, our football and basketball teams sold out every game. We drew about 1,700-2,200 fans on average every Friday night. So, I'm sure we paid for our participation in other ways. At 5 bucks a pop, that's a nice chunk the school got every Friday during the Fall. We even got to take chartered buses with TV's, Radios and the works to away games. No extra charge. /shrugs I just assumed that was the average high school football experience. Last edited by avwjase; 05-23-2007 at 07:10 PM. |
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#18 | |||
All Star Reserve
Join Date: Feb 2006
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<--Also employed in education.
Quote:
Edit to add relevant informationThe article talks mostly about Patrick Henry High School, which is in the same general area, with similar characteristics: ~$16,000 per capita income, 12.6% of families below the povery line. Even more telling are the number of people with high school and bachelor's degrees (national rates in parenthesis) High school: 78.3% (80.4%) Bachelor's: 17.6% (24.4%) Compared to Hennepin county as a whole, which includes the city of Minneapolis and many suburbs, the per capita income is $33,047. Only 7% of the total families in the county lie below the poverty line. For education; HS: 92% (80.4%) Bachelors: 43.6% (24.4%) Obviously, these two areas are depressed economically, making the fee a struggle. Moreover, there is a much lower likelyhood compared to the national average that these kids will have good academic support at home to aide them in gaining the C average needed. Its even more shocking when compared to the rest of the county-remember those county wide numbers include the lower areas listed above, but are countered by Cities like Edina, where 58.5% (!!!!!!!) of people hold bachelor's degrees or higher. As a comparision, the US nationwide stats for the same period are per capita income of $25,035, while 10.2% of families lie below the poverty line. Obviously, for those in the neighborhood around North HS, a $70 fee would be a much higher percentage of income than for someone say, in Wayzata or Plymouth. Thats the point everyone's trying to make here. Without checking, I'm sure that off the top of my head, most of the city public High Schools would have similiar income averages, except for maybe Southwest which is a pretty ritzy neighborhood and abuts Robbinsdale and Edina. Quote:
As far as extra curriculars being extra, yes, they are. But they also serve a very important role in the total education of a child and should be as accesible as possible to all. Its a fact (if you want reports, I can link them later) that children in sports or the arts achieve higher and have a much higher reported rate of attendance and overall satisfaction with school. These are real, tangible numbers that increase the effectiveness of primary and secondary education which should not be ignored because someone can't come up with a certain amount of money. Quote:
Last edited by piperclap; 05-23-2007 at 07:34 PM. Reason: Added more info |
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#19 | |
All Star Starter
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Iahiodo a.k.a. the flyover
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As for rolling your eyes at me, grow up. If you want to talk about these issues, I'll talk, as I enjoy talking about them. If you want to act like one of the grade schoolers that you teach, then I'm not too interested in wasting my time. |
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#20 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Pittsburgh
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I don't think a person's GPA is necessarily indicative of their ability to be a productive human being, but if you can't maintain a C average in high school I suspect you have bigger problems than not being able to play a sport.
On the other hand, I think the fees are silly. Maybe things have changed, but when I was in school we had fundraisers to help pay for sports (in additon to the usual practice of the school district allocating 96% of the local school taxes for athletics). As long as people have to pay school taxes, I can't support public schools charging fees for stuff.
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"I pretty much popped everything cold turkey. We were doing steroids they wouldn't give to horses." -- Tom House "I was very fortunate to have a pitching coach by the name of Tom House...Tom, I really miss those days that we spent in the weight room and out on the field working together." -- Nolan Ryan's HoF Induction Speech Last edited by Jason Moyer; 05-23-2007 at 09:47 PM. |
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