Why High School Athletics are Important Research Paper

Why High School Athletics are Important - Research Paper Example Unfortunately, some high schools institutions have opted out of sports, with the reason of spending more resources on academics. It is of no doubt that academics is the primary reason for education and should be given the primary priority; but sports is important to the lives of students as well as far as their human development is concerned. There are ways athletics as sports can benefit the lives of the involved students in ways that the educators, parents and students cannot even realize. When some students engage in such sporting activities for the recognition, love for the games and other reasons, there are many other benefits accruing from these sporting activities that can turn out to be of great importance to the community at large. People become motivated in so many and different forms. Athletics serves as a very powerful tool to extrinsically motivate students. Some students underperform in classes due to lack of extrinsic motivators that the educators can apply to boost their academic morale (Stein p52). Some students perceive academics as of secondary course in school, but embraces sports. In this case, some high schools have resorted to raising grades and specific performance, for example, 60% and above to consider students as qualified to participate in sports. These students would, therefore, strive to attain the performance level set by the educators in order to have a slot in extracurricular activities. Consequently, they will perform better that they would have otherwise without athletics (Ekeler p75). Athletics has also played a greater role in ensuring that the students stay out of trouble. Athletics serve, as motivators of enabling students remain disciplined through schooling. When students misbehave, they are suspended from participating in sports; or expelled, and this motivates them to maintain their best behavior. The prospect of participating in athletics is an effective tool for deterring students from making wrong