Kids, football and concussion
Can high school football players be protected from the dangers of concussions? In the wake of a near-fatal concussion of a local player, the San Jose Mercury News finds California’s rules are more...
View ArticleColts jersey wearer suspended in Louisiana
A Louisiana boy was sent home from Maurepas High School on Friday for wearing a Colts football jersey, reports The Advocate in Baton Rouge. Other students wore Saints jerseys for Black-and-Gold Day,...
View ArticleBoise State can learn from Boise State
Higher Ed Watch’s Academic BCS, which ranks the top college football teams using academic indicators, shows Stanford as number one and Boise State as number two. Boise State’s football players are more...
View ArticleNot the NFL
Education should emulate football teams’ zeal to improve, says American Federation of Teachers leader Randi Weingarten in her joint interview with Bill Gates in Newsweek. Football teams . . . look at...
View ArticleHigh school football without the high school
Barred from sports at their local school, Maryland homeschoolers have formed their own football teams, which also recruit students from private schools too small to field a team.
View ArticleWhen the team wins, male GPAs lose
When the University of Oregon football team wins, male students’ grades decline, conclude economists who tracked the Ducks’ last nine seasons. “Our estimates suggest male grades fall significantly with...
View ArticleIlliterate in college
A star athlete, Dasmine Cathey got through Memphis schools without learning to read and got a football “scholarship” to the University of Memphis. By studying first-grade books and working with...
View ArticleCCs make room for out-of-state athletes
California’s crowded community colleges are cutting classes, turning would-be students away and making room for out-of-state football players.
View Article‘We came here to play FOOTBALL’
Ohio State third-string quarterback Cardale Jones tweeted: “Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come to play SCHOOL classes are POINTLESS.” Jones’ comments and...
View ArticleIn a word, yes
Is it fair to put the total blame on a student’s academic performance on his or her coach? That’s one of the questions with which Valerie Strauss (it must be a Strauss sort of day; my last post was...
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Powderpuff football is sexist, dangerous
Powderpuff football is sexist, divisive and dangerous, according to the principal of a suburban Boston high school. Newton South Principal Joel Stembridge canceled the school’s annual girls’ flag...
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Is it time to give football the boot?
American high schools care more about sports than academics, charges Amanda Ripley in The Atlantic. Last year in Texas, whose small towns are the spiritual home of high-school football and the...
View ArticleSee jocks run — but not read
Some college athletes play like adults, but read like 5th-graders, reports Sara Ganim for CNN. Tutors help them, as long as they can play. Then they drop out or graduate with a degree they still...
View ArticleHigh-challenge high schools
Once again, Oakland’s American Indian Public Charter High has topped the Washington Post‘s list of the nation’s most challenging high schools. The index measures the percentage of students taking a...
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‘To write is to learn’
Every Cleveland Browns player has a tablet computer — and a pad of paper. Coach Mike Pettine believes tells players writing by hand will improve their chances of learning complex plays, reports Kevin...
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No more school sports?
Sayreville High canceled its football season in response to charges of locker room assaults. A New Jersey high school canceled its football season after seven varsity players were charged with hazing...
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Stanford player promotes reading
Wayne Lyons will read the quarterback when he covers pass receivers for the Stanford Cardinal in Tuesday’s Foster Farms Bowl. He’s into reading, reports Elliott Almond for the San Jose Mercury News. A...
View ArticleThe flip side of ‘Friday Night Lights’
Friday Night Lights, a book and movie that became a TV series, featured the Permian Panthers’ quest for the state championship in football-obsessed Texas. A new movie called Carter High is about their...
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Spartans may win bowl, but will they graduate?
LJ Scott runs past a block made by Donavon Clark to help Michigan State beat Oregon on Sept. 12. Credit: Alice Kole/State News Michigan State was a winner on the football field this year, qualifying...
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Pro loves football, math
Baltimore Ravens lineman John Urschel, who’s working on his PhD in math at MIT, taught a lesson to summer-school students at a Maryland high school. It’s not unusual for star athletes to try to...
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