Athletics and Academic Demands, Free Essay in Education

Sports and academics play critical roles in the mental growth, fitness and emotional stability of individuals. Research shows 90% of the students who excel in their academics also participate in sports which help them to relieve stress and hence to make their brains to function effectively as outlined by Whitsell and Naquin (2016). However, the research also points out some exceptional cases where an individual may be talented in one field only, which is either in academics or sports. Athletics, for instance, is a form of games which may be very difficult to balance with class work and this makes the participants get a hard time in settling for academic work. The athletes keep wandering from one country to another due to the fact that the athletics have several competitions which consumes a lot of time (Harber, 2017).

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It is thus very prudent for colleges to consider accepting athletes with their academic achievements whether they meet the college's academic threshold or not. To start with, I would wish to explain the reasons which make me conclude that in many occasions, the colleges have been very unfair to the athletes by putting very high academic demands on this sportsmen and women which are hard to meet due to the following conditions.

Inadequate Time for Preparation

According to Murray (2015), academics require ample time to concentrate to articulate and comprehend the content for better performance. However, the athletes lacks the time to settle down on their books to read due to the fact that most of their time they spend in training for various competitions. The colleges should, therefore, accept the fact that these athletes are all rounded and are doing essential actions for the colleges and the country at large as according to Malik and Sharma (2015). We can take a case of an athlete who trains for at least 6 hours a day and still has the pressure to attend their lessons together with other students who had been reading for these six hours and these people sit the same examinations, and they are expected to perform like their counterparts. Is it possible? The answer is No because the athletes have not enough time to revise and do other academic work, the colleges should not mount pressure on them to meet some academic thresholds.

Conflict Of Interest

Greene (2017), noted that most of the time, the sportsmen and women are faced with a conflict of interest and thus find themselves in very compromising situations of whether to concentrate in sports or academics. As such, since sports is an inborn talent, the athletes prefer participating in athletics to focus on their academic work hence making most of them not to perform well in academics. The colleges should thus consider employing much psychiatric personnel to help the athletes discover themselves and help them specialize in their interests. It will make the colleges to be in a position to nurture talents and at the same time produce academic giants who can compete effectively in the global arena.

Understanding the Goals of Education

The chief purpose of education should be to create and produce a holistic, and all rounded citizen who is capable of transforming society in any given capacity and not only passing examinations as noted by White and Billings (2016). The colleges should thus invest in providing education to the athletes who focus on producing a sound mind and holistic people. According to McCarthy (2016), the colleges should, therefore, consider leaving the athletes to prioritize in athletics and avoid making academic restrictions to these peoples.

On the contrary, most colleges believe that academic qualifications should be the basis and thus make it a mandatory to the athletes to merit a certain threshold which according to me is a misinformed decision which undermines the exploitation of talents noted Fine (2015)

Most colleges should understand that education has an inclusive perspective which involves nurturing of talents and not only passing examinations. The understanding of the idea will make them reduce the pressure they are putting on the athletes in passing tests suggested Fine (2017).

Lastly, the athletes should take it to be their responsibilities to balance their talents and book work so that they can fit well in society as resourceful whole rounded persons suggested Stinson (2017).

Reference

Fine, C. F. (2015). The dynamics between intercollegiate athletics & academics: A phenomenological case study approach (Doctoral dissertation, Clemson University).

Fine, C. F. (2017). The interaction between academics and athletics: An administrative experience. Journal for the Study of Sports and Athletes in Education, 11(2), 93-103.

Greene, B. A. (2017). Self-efficacy and Future Goals in Education. Routledge.

Harber, C. (2017). Goals for Education. In Schooling in Sub-Saharan Africa (pp. 1-16). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Malik, S., & Sharma, U. (2015). Smart classroom pedagogics: in quest to realize the future goals of education. Journal of indian research, 3(4), 144-158.

McCarthy, C. (2016). Develop plans for increasing success in athletics, academics and beyond. College Athletics and the Law, 12(12), 12-12.

Murray, S. (2015). Assessment Strategies and the Shifting Goals of Education: An Overview. In Presentation at Regional Forum on Innovative Strategies for Supporting Transition to a.

Stinson, J. L. (2017). Leveraging Intercollegiate Athletics to Support Academic Giving at NCAA Division I Institutions. Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 29(1), 1-19.

White, F. D., & Billings, S. J. (2016). The Well-Crafted Argument. Cengage Learning.

Whitsell, M., & Naquin, m. (2016). An investigation into the relationship among stress, sleep, and academic performance in college athletes. Refereed papers, 18, 22.