Sports Are More Important than Education

1491 Words3 Pages

As of 2007, a total of 15.6 million undergraduate college students attended school in search of a higher level of education ("How Many?"). In spring of 2013, only 14,473,884 students attended an American college or university, constituting a decrease of 1,126,116 students compared to 2007 ("College Enrollment "). One reason for the decrease is that some students do not have any plan for after high school, however most student-athletes do. It is often said that education should come before anything else, an example being athletics. So when an argument rises on whether or not student- athletes in college should be exempted from class attendance policies to participate in sport related activities such as practices, meetings, and games the immediate answer by many would be no. However, student-athletes should be exempted from class attendance policies because some student- athletes attend college primarily for their sport and students should be able to invest more time and effort in the true reason of their collegiate career.
It is often said that education should come before anything else. “Education is the most important factor in the development of the country” (“Education”). However, this is not always true in terms of the success of one’s collegiate career. Education is not every student’s top priority, and there are many ways to live successfully after college without focusing on the academic part as your top priority. Only about 30 percent of Americans complete a bachelor’s degree by their mid-20s, with another 10 percent completing an associate’s degree by then (Paulson). Not everyone’s top priority is academics, with many alternatives and goals to pursue, many people drop-out or simply stop trying and eventually flunk out. H...

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Works Cited
"College Enrollment Statistics."http://www.statisticbrain.com/. 28 Apr 2013. Web. 17 Jan 2014.
"Education Is the Single Most Important Factor in the Development of a Country? Do You Agree?" StudyMode.com. Web. Nov 2012.
"How Many People Go To College Every Year?"http://howtoedu.org/. Web. 17 Jan 2014.
Osman, Rachel. "Should class attendance be mandatory? Students, professors say no." USA Today College. 25 March 2012: Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Paulson, Amanda. "Does Everyone Need a College Degree? Maybe Not, Says Harvard Study." Christian Science Monitor. 02 Feb 2011: SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 11 Dec 2013.
Stewart, Xenia. "Sometimes, Student-Athletes Just Want to Be Normal. New York Times. 05 Feb 2009. Web. 17 Jan 2014.
Swasey, Christel. "Top Ten Professors Calling out Common Core’s So-called College Readiness. 07 Sep 2013. Web. 17 Jan 2014.

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