[quote=walterwhite]no. the mind and the body go together. schools have it all wrong. PE is not just one subject among many. PE should be 50% of the curriculum, 50% should be “academic” subjects. everyone should be in top physical condition when they leave high school. of course if we did this, academic grades would rise as well, because kids would be able to think. sports are not a luxury. PE is what effects most of your health and your life. We as a society ahve a very limited and dumb idea of what education and life preparation is.[/quote]
I agree that teaching physical health in schools would be a great thing. Many asian countries incorporate hours of taichi and meditation with that endeavor in mind. But here we equate sports with alcohol and junk food binges. We equate sports with being on or following a winning team rather than personal health.
Physical education/with the mind body thing and pursuit of exercise are barely even related to the business of competetive sports(games) and scholarships for a athletes with a massive spectator components. The whole gig looks like conditioning the popultation for hero worship and to be happy with bread and circuses.
It would interesting to compare the GPA of the graduating athletes to those of graduating non-athletes and the relative rigors of their studies. To be even more fair, how about looking at the grades of students with academic scholarships compared to those with athletic scholarships.