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Athlete and Education
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I have spent all my adult life in academe, first as a student and then as a professor. During that time I have seen many variations in the role of intercollegiate athletics in the university, and I’ve developed sharply split opinions on the subject. On one hand, I despise the system, clinging as it does to the academic body like a parasite. On the other hand, I feel sympathy and admiration for most of the young athletes struggling to balance the task of getting an education with the need to devote most of their energies to the excessive demands of the gym and the field.
My earliest experiences with the intrusion of athletics into the class-room came while I was still a freshman at the University of Colorado. While I was in my English professor’s office one day, a colleague of hers came by for a chat. Their talk turned to the football coach’s efforts to court the favor of the teachers responsible for his gladiators by treating them to dinner and a solicitous discussion of the academic progress of the players. I vividly recall my professor saying, “He can take me out to dinner if he wants, but if he thinks Ill pass his knuckleheads just because of that, he’d better think again.” Later, as a graduate teaching fellow, a lecturer, and then an assistant professor of English, I had ample opportunity to observe a Division I university’s athletics program. I soon discovered that the prevailing stereo-types did not always apply. Athletes turned out to be as diverse as any other grou...
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