This author does a poor job presenting a balanced view of the role athletics plays in the educational process. This is a classic example of what I try to teach my students to look for in reading an article, especially one that cites statistics. The statistics that are quoted are poor at best. They do not show whether the incidence of injury is increasing, decreasing, or remaining level. He does not state how many nonathletic related injuries, doctors visits, and hospitalizations occur for nonathletes. It would be interesting to see how much higher the incident of injury is for an athlete at practice as opposed to an individual racing out of the school parking lot in their car, or riding a skateboard at the skate park during the same times of day. It may be higher, but I bet there are still a significant number of injuries that occur at the same time of day to nonathletes as well. Also this author does very little to present the positive sides of athletics. No stats that show improved attendance rates, GPA's, or graduation rates among athletes. No mention of lower incidence of discipline issues at school or substance abuse among athletes. No mention of female athletes having higher self esteem, waiting longer to have intercourse, and having lower pregnancy rates as compared to their nonathlete peers.
All in all a very poorly researched and written article.
