Good at sports or good at academics?
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Anonymous
| Definitely when they are older and in the long term, academics. My oldest really loves school and in middle school now has really learned great time management skills, pushes himself in a healthy way, really enjoys his subjects, and is curious and engaged in everything. I think this will help him succeed in life in general in the long run, especially in the work place. |
Anonymous
| Sports of course. Better to be fit and good looking than fat and a book smart |
Anonymous
It can be a choice. I focused almost exclusively on my sport in high school and college. I was too exhausted to do well in school. Yes I went to an exclusive hard to get into college but have had imposter syndrome my whole life because I knew I got in through a back door. I also found ways to get study materials, notes, and other not great ways of getting passing grades. This should not be a goal. If a kid is naturally gifted in sports that is one thing but if they’re just average and need to go to extremes to excel in the sport it’s a huge mistake. By extremes I mean 5-6 days/week travel teams starting at 9-10, private coaching, etc. |
Anonymous
What? The kids are being allowed and encouraged to intensively train in the areas in which they have an actual future. It’s almost like a specialized and optional form of “tracking”. |
Anonymous
But it's not okay when it comes to academics (the example I mentioned doesn't exist, nor would it be allowed to), so why is it okay when it comes to athletics? |
Anonymous
| Honestly the sports are more difficult and have greater range of learning than public school. When we did private school for a couple of years those school classes were about on par with sports but now with public school we don't worry about school too much. |
Anonymous
“Not ok” according to whom? Personally I think academic tracking would also be better for the vast majority of society. |
Anonymous
Luckily it’s becoming more common knowledge that there are many types of intelligence and most of us have a type that is stronger than others. It used to be math, science, language , history and that was it. Very limited. Now the kids who are lucky enough to have their parents recognize their strengths and don’t just put them on the standard path are more successful. The students who have top AP courses have linguistic and logical-mathematics strengths. A naturally gifted athlete has high Bodily-Kinaesthetic Intelligence. Dancers, along with other careers have excellent Visual-Spatial Intelligence and Bodily-Kinaeshetic intelligence. This is why book smart kids might go to a private school, athletic kids might go to a school that specializes in a specific sport and dancers might go to a boarding school focusing on dance. It’s a little bit like trade schools. They have these strengths and they are learning to use them. |
Anonymous
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Sports is about socialization. I'd argue that someone good at sports through talent and practice will go far in life. Academics is about following rules - study to memorize. If you are a rule follower I will bet you are a straight A student.
I'd pick sports to be good at which shows me what a person can do to overcome adversity. To be good at sports does not imply you're an idiot you know that right? To be ONLY good at academics implies that you are an idiot in every subject except your expert one. I get executives jobs and regularly work with MBAs out of Duke and Stanford. They are not all smart let me put it like that. There's phDs who are smart and those who are idiots because they know nothing else. Looking at my own kids, my son is IQ need smart plays chess and a math wizard. Can't play sports except run. The running is what's made him a better all around person who isn't totally clueless about the world. My DD is a soccer star. Average intelligence but hard worker. Straight A student because she wields. Needs loooooooots of tutoring. She would be the first to say that her drive and understanding of how she's become good at soccer has contributed to how she approaches academics. She's not a natural at the latter and is much more talented at soccer. But the 2 are interrelated. Almost everyone on her team is academically excellent. This is only 8th grade however but still. |
Anonymous
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1. Everyone is different with strengths and weaknesses. You will always lose with the attitude or either or in this context.
2. I know of not a single teammate incl my kid who plays ECNL soccer doing badly in academics. There's a very strong correlation between the ability to manage a busy schedule and prioritizing and the correlation between exercise and mental capacity. Typically going full out at sports as long as you love it, will only help you in every way do better academically. I mean study after study has pretty much highlighted this - are you seriously doubting? 3. Everyone has their talent and interests. Until your an adult does it matter how well they do in either? But playing devils advocate I'm gonna suggest having fun playing sports professionally making a lot of money may beat sitting in an office for 30 years as a white collar professional stressing about money. So actually I'd def gift my kids athletic talent and success to play pro over academic success as I think that would in fact be much cooler for them!!!!! Hah! |
Anonymous
Organized sports is not the path to lifetime fitness. And as for good-looking, sorry, you are going to rely on your genes. Hope you are good looking and passed it on. |
Anonymous
In a boring field maybe? Need new worker drones always, but innovation takes creativity. |
Anonymous
False |
Anonymous
| Sports for sure |
Anonymous
<ahem> No facts, just a statement. Let me guess. You went the sports route. |