"Athletes' lives are more valuable....." Really?? SMH........

[luvsJack]

In my school, there are pep rallies to support the athletes. These pep rallies in the gym with all students in attendance require that everyone loses one academic period. This is in a school where many students struggle academically.

There are no pep rallies to cheer on the students that are excelling in math, science and reading or thrive in other areas such as music or art.

So yes, we (society) do back up and support that statement.

Eaxctly. Dd is a choir kid. Their choir is considered one of the top choirs in the state, they get top ratings every year with the women's choir getting the top scores in their division. Not once do they even get that announced to the student body. But let the football team win a game and you would think they had won a national championship, lol.

 

[Sabeking]

My daughters are amazing texters, tv watchers and Kraft macaroni and cheese makers!

When my youngest DD was in middle school one day she happened to be changing in the girls bathroom for a middle school tennis match. She was in a stall and in walked a friend who was also on the tennis team who had come to change. This girl's mother was with her. I do not believe they knew my DD was in there. Mom proceeded to tell the girl that she better be in the first seed position or she would be grounded. This lady was like that with everything! She once told me that neither of her two daughters would be allowed to marry until they completed their masters degrees. Good luck with that. I have watched these two girls grow up and have seen their bitterness grow daily towards the mom.

 

[Kimberlyann11]

Eaxctly. Dd is a choir kid. Their choir is considered one of the top choirs in the state, they get top ratings every year with the women's choir getting the top scores in their division. Not once do they even get that announced to the student body. But let the football team win a game and you would think they had won a national championship, lol.

Same. Except world-class robotics team.

 

[mom2rtk]

My daughters are amazing texters, tv watchers and Kraft macaroni and cheese makers!

When my youngest DD was in middle school one day she happened to be changing in the girls bathroom for a middle school tennis match. She was in a stall and in walked a friend who was also on the tennis team who had come to change. This girl's mother was with her. I do not believe they knew my DD was in there. Mom proceeded to tell the girl that she better be in the first seed position or she would be grounded. This lady was like that with everything! She once told me that neither of her two daughters would be allowed to marry until they completed their masters degrees. Good luck with that. I have watched these two girls grow up and have seen their bitterness grow daily towards the mom.

That story just hurts my heart.

I like your texting tv watching mac and cheese making daughters and I haven't even met them!

 

[Sabeking]

That story just hurts my heart.

I like your texting tv watching mac and cheese making daughters and I haven't even met them!

Thank you! We have cornered the market on average! Lol!

 

[Jeafl]

I had a fourth grade student who was a gifted gymnast, so much so that her parents decided to keep her in school only in the mornings and homeschool in the afternoons. In reality, she was not being homeschooled much, she was spending her afternoon hours training instead. Her life became nothing but gymnastics. She missed all school parties and special events. Fast forward to middle school, she sustained an injury and was advised to quit gymnastics. Sadly, she missed years of friends, valuable social development and fun for nothing. I had heard that she was kind of relieved to be done because she was so burned out on it. You just never know what the future holds.

To get back to the original question, I probably could not be friends with someone like that. All of my kids were great athletes, but we were realistic enough to know that none were headed for the olympics. In fact, my daughters stopped their sport when they got to college. My son did continue to play hockey, and do cross country and track, but he went to a smaller school where he did it for the fun and exercise.

ANY loss of life is equally tragic, whether it is a world class athlete or not.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

In my school, there are pep rallies to support the athletes. These pep rallies in the gym with all students in attendance require that everyone loses one academic period. This is in a school where many students struggle academically.

There are no pep rallies to cheer on the students that are excelling in math, science and reading or thrive in other areas such as music or art.

So yes, we (society) do back up and support that statement.

Support the statement that athletes are awesome? Yes. Society does that.

Support the statement that their death will have more impact? No.

Sure we mourn of a star athlete gets killed. But that their tragic death would more tragic than Joe Average's tragic death? I don't know that society supports that. In fact, it seems anytime a teen does unexpectedly in a tragic way around here, no one bothers to look at their list of activities to determine how much sad they should be.

Just seems beyond crass to make the leap from valuing athletes more to valuing their deaths more. I don't think society supports the latter.

 

[Andtototoo]

Notice that most of the people who told you this were of a certain age? Remember, antibiotics only became common after WW2; before that it was a standard assumption that very few parents had all of their live-born children live to adulthood. (One of my sets of grandparents did -- all nine of them, and everyone they knew thought that it was absolutely amazing luck.) People protected themselves emotionally by accepting statements like those as truth.

Sorry, my MIL was born after WW2, so that statement does not apply to her.

 

[ms.yt]

Eaxctly. Dd is a choir kid. Their choir is considered one of the top choirs in the state, they get top ratings every year with the women's choir getting the top scores in their division. Not once do they even get that announced to the student body. But let the football team win a game and you would think they had won a national championship, lol.

Ugh. Don't get me started on this. The school where I teach holds an assembly with the entire student body (even elementary kids) when a student athlete signs with a college, no matter if it's just a community college (in the 15 years I've been there, we've only had one student sign for a D1 school, and he dropped out less than 1 semester in). They have this big ceremony, give speeches and have a reception afterward. The elementary kids spend class time making signs to hold up during the ceremony.

Never once have we done anything to celebrate kids getting academic scholarships, and there are lots of these every year. They announce the academic scholarships at graduation with all the other financial awards, including the athletic scholarships. Absolutely no special recognition is given to the students receiving academic scholarships. In recent years, I've refused to go out to the signing ceremonies. When people ask, I tell them that although I'm happy for the student athletes, I'm just as happy for the kids who get academic scholarships. When all students get recognized, I'll participate.

On a somewhat separate note, my journalism kids last year won 15 national awards and numerous state level awards. They got no recognition from our school. The year before our boys' basketball team lost in the quarterfinals of state tournament, and community members organized an escort to bring them back to the school where they had all the students line up to welcome them home. I can't imagine what we would have done if they had actually won something.

 

[Dread Pirate]

I brag about my brainiac nephew, the scientist ALL THE TIME!!! This summer , after ONLY his Sophomore year at Carnegie -Mellon University studying robotics, he has a summer internship in California working on software for the 2020 MARS ROVER! Whoop!

Impressive! I was fortunate, due to a teaching connection, to go visit JPL and see the room where they were testing the original Rover. It was way cool. (They also let me hold solid oxygen!! Yes, I too am a nerd!)

On a somewhat separate note, my journalism kids last year won 15 national awards and numerous state level awards. They got no recognition from our school.

I'm proud of your students!

I gave permission to my own children that they didn't have to participate in any of the pep rallies, or big things to celebrate the athletes, since the school never celebrated those who won academic or artistic competitions. My kids always found their way to my office at the school during those times, and enjoyed the opportunity to do some reading!

 

[leebee]

OP here again! Don't want anyone to think that I was MIA, but I work from 7:30 - 3:30 and can't do the DIS while I'm teaching, lol!

Answering a couple of questions: Yes, these are the SUNY Geneseo students. It's a very very small town near Rochester, NY, with an awesome little college.

As far as referring to my own children with "labels".......my daughter attends an Environmental Science college (and what do you know? She got a full scholarship to go there, LOL!). She is heavily involved in some of the school's research. I guess I could have said that she is a "science-minded person". I didn't see the harm in calling her a scientist. Sorry if I sounded as if I also needed a reality check. I was simply classifying my kids based on their interests.

SUNY-ESF by any chance? DH got his PhD at Syracuse, so we lived there for 5+ years. Just curious!

DD22 is an elementary school librarian, she does a great job, loves it, and the kids love her! However, for 5 years I've referred to her as a dancer, but as she is paid by a ballet company to perform and be ballet mistress, I think she qualifies. I guess it seems odd to identify a kid by a "profession" while they are still in high school, unless they are actually employed in the field!

 

[ms.yt]

I'm proud of your students!

Thank you. I am too. A staff of five students from a tiny rural school put together two publications for the entire K-12 district and won those awards. I think they're pretty amazing myself.

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

I just watched a documentary on Netflix called, "Trophy Kids". The things some parents do to make their children star athletes is mind boggling. I would probably not be friends with this person if they keep insulting my children.

"Trophy kids" being parented by "Helicopter parents"!!!! What a perfect way to screw up a kid.

 

[Chocolate Cake]

Many of the star athletes that were worshiped and looked down upon everyone in high school were at the highest point in their lives. Most of these kids that were supposedly getting scholarships since FIFTH GRADE (yes parents were starting to say that in elementary school) didn't get a dime and many never made it through college. Their parents put so much emphasis on athletics and neglected academics. Once they got into college, they had no idea how to function without the fame, or their parents telling them their next move. Very sad for these kids.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

You know, it's interesting (and I'm certainly guilty of it too) seeing parents of "mathletes", "musicians", "actors", etc being just as competitive as the athletes' parents they criticize.

 

[eliza61]

Many of the star athletes that were worshiped and looked down upon everyone in high school were at the highest point in their lives. Most of these kids that were supposedly getting scholarships since FIFTH GRADE (yes parents were starting to say that in elementary school) didn't get a dime and many never made it through college. Their parents put so much emphasis on athletics and neglected academics. Once they got into college, they had no idea how to function without the fame, or their parents telling them their next move. Very sad for these kids.

"Trophy kids" being parented by "Helicopter parents"!!!! What a perfect way to screw up a kid.

Many of the star athletes that were worshiped and looked down upon everyone in high school were at the highest point in their lives. Most of these kids that were supposedly getting scholarships since FIFTH GRADE (yes parents were starting to say that in elementary school) didn't get a dime and many never made it through college. Their parents put so much emphasis on athletics and neglected academics. Once they got into college, they had no idea how to function without the fame, or their parents telling them their next move. Very sad for these kids.

guys, guys.

Remember one thing, most of these situations are extreme. LOL, there are more than 400,000 college athletes out there. MOST like my son are very level headed kids, with very level headed parents.

The lady in the op's example is EXTREME. most parents of athletes don't think non athlete kids are less important.

When you see professional sports, those players are less than 1% of the total when they went to college. There are not 500 Lebron James or Payton Mannings walking around.

Of all the college football players out there only 1% will get drafted or looked at by a professional team. You mentioned "Star" athletes, how many schools have "star" athletes. one of the things kids find out quickly is that being a star athlete at Corsell High is one thing, being an star athlete in the NJ STATE is a whole different ball of wax.

Men's basketball?? there are over 500,000 kids playing on HS teams, only 3% will make it to the college level.

So I disagree. MOST college athletes function very well, in fact they do great because for most of their lives they've had to juggle demands of their sports plus demands of their schools.

Sorry I disagree 400,000 "trophy" kids walking around campuses?? Hardly.

Like any thing else, the media reports on the extreme cases.

 

[Allons-y!]

I don't see anything wrong with using the terms athlete, musician, scientist, etc. to refer to your kids. Lots of children and teens do gravitate to one area of interest. Why is that an issue? It's when someone attempts to say that their child is more special than other kids because of that interest or label that there's a problem.

I just don't understand why people are jumping all over the OP for saying one of her kids - who attends college for science! - is a scientist, and that the other is an artist. She wasn't even upset at her co-worker for calling her own kids athletes. It certainly sounds like they are. But the co-worker saying her athletes are better than the OP's scientist and artist? No way. That friendship would have been over long ago if I was the OP.

 

[Allons-y!]

guys, guys.

Remember one thing, most of these situations are extreme. LOL, there are more than 400,000 college athletes out there. MOST like my son are very level headed kids, with very level headed parents.

The lady in the op's example is EXTREME. most parents of athletes don't think non athlete kids are less important.

When you see professional sports, those players are less than 1% of the total when they went to college. There are not 500 Lebron James or Payton Mannings walking around.

Of all the college football players out there only 1% will get drafted or looked at by a professional team. You mentioned "Star" athletes, how many schools have "star" athletes. one of the things kids find out quickly is that being a star athlete at Corsell High is one thing, being an star athlete in the NJ STATE is a whole different ball of wax.

Men's basketball?? there are over 500,000 kids playing on HS teams, only 3% will make it to the college level.

So I disagree. MOST college athletes function very well, in fact they do great because for most of their lives they've had to juggle demands of their sports plus demands of their schools.

Sorry I disagree 400,000 "trophy" kids walking around campuses?? Hardly.

Like any thing else, the media reports on the extreme cases.

You seem a bit defensive. Neither person you quoted claimed that all or even most college athletes are trophy kids. I think you are reading way too much into those posts.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

You seem a bit defensive. Neither person you quoted claimed that all or even most college athletes are trophy kids. I think you are reading way too much into those posts.

I don't think she sounds defensive at all. She addressed the thread in general, in which there have been posts about every point she talked about.

I found her post a good reality check to all of the posters who were starting to go to the extreme. Brought the whole subject back into focus.

Thanks PP!

 

[eliza61]

You seem a bit defensive. Neither person you quoted claimed that all or even most college athletes are trophy kids. I think you are reading way too much into those posts.

no not at all. defensive that its.

I was just pointing out after six pages of "parents gone wild stories", mom's betting on their kids, mom's belittling their kids, etc etc that the situation like the op's are very much the exception.

I am a great believer in sports for kids in general when they are done right because they do teach kids great lessons. I do think like every thing else, if you don't have exposure to a certain thing the prevailing 'wisdom" is what you will believe.

We always have these horror stories of athletes slumming their way through college, having cake classes, being treated special and I'm absolutely sure that happens, heck it happened when I was at Pitt during the dark ages, lol. The professional athlete behaving badly and getting special treatment. If you have 2000 NFL players, how many of them are super stars? 1%.

by in large though, most athletes (once they get to, say seniors in h.s) are just kids that like their sport and enjoy playing.

I am just as proud of my Asperger's kid who didn't even go to college as I am of my college football player.