Reply to Why would a school place athletics on an equal or even higher footing than academics?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP -- you sound really uniformed. Read the literature about how employers like to hire athletes for their discipline and team work. Companies don't just want smart people -- they want smart people who have strong emotional intelligence, who can work as teams, who are extroverts who can give speeches, etc. Much of the training companies like comes from team sports.

This is not a recent trend...study ancient Greece and the history of the Olympics. The "Olympian man" was an intellectual as well as an athlete.[/quote]

+1.

Private schools strive to churn out future leaders.   The tried and true recipe for that is scholar + athlete.[/quote]

Agree completely.  In fact, I thinks schools such as Sidwell and GDS (two that particularly come to mind), which seem to disregard the importance of strong team sports and leadership ability, send less well adapted and capable students out into the world.[/quote]

I used to coach at Sidwell (and now teach and coach at a different school because of teaching opportunities, not coaching issues).  I loved their athletic program.  They had lots and lots of teams and tons of participation -- kids playing to play, not just with college hopes.  We had some great athletes who were college bound too, and it was fun to watch them working with and bringing up the level of play of some of their less athletic (but smart and competitive) teammates.  The athletic department actively encouraged academic teachers to coach, and they had some teacher coaches (though not as many as schools where that is part of the core employment model).  The kids had fun.  They wanted to win but they were good sports.  They were quirky and hilarious to coach.  The school and athletic department cared about girls' sports as well as boys' sports.  I saw it as a terrific model of balancing sports with academic rigor, in a way which worked both for the college bound "serious" athlete and the kid looking for a team experience, competition, leadership, comraderie, and exercise.  When athletes consider Sidwell or my school (which is single-sex) I have nothing but good to say about Sidwell athletics, if they prefer the co-ed route.

I think there are a lot of misconceptions out there about the various athletic programs, some of which stem from a tunnel vision focus (at least on this forum) on a handful of sports (and pretty much all-boys).  I will admit, my favorite sport to watch is probably still football, with a well-played basketball or soccer or lacrosse game close behind.  But the accomplishment and growth that can come from JV girls' volleyball or varsity wrestling or cross-country is just as great.  [/quote]

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