Cutting Our Sports Teams Is Not a Healthy Decision
Our school administration has recently proposed eliminating all sports teams, referring to a decrease in team participation, low attendance, and overall high cost of maintaining these teams. While cutting team sports from the budget would save money, the immediate and long-term negative results would not be worth the money saved.
First, though it is true that many teams have not had high numbers of participants, this is not a reason to cut all teams. A few teams still do have high participation rates and very dedicated players. One solution is to keep one or two high participation sports per season, for example, fall football, winter basketball and swimming, and spring track and baseball.
Second, the school is concerned about poor audience attendance at the games and uses this argument to support the idea that there is a decreasing interest in our teams. Although there may be lower audience numbers than in the past, the students who do go are loyal fans. Moreover, this devoted fan base has helped build a community that promotes school spirit across the campus. This school spirit affects all student s whether or not they attend each game. For example, after last year’s baseball finals, more baseball hats were sold in the campus store than ever before even though most of the students wearing the hats had not attended one game!
Finally, the administration states that the cost of keeping team sports is just too costly. Though the cost of sports teams may be high, the price paid for cutting the teams in the long term is even higher. Sports teams are a daily reminder of the importance of maintaining a balanced, healthy life style. School sports help promote life-long healthy habits. With this in mind, shouldn’t the school be putting more money into sports rather than taking it away?
The high school prom is the first formal social event for most American teenagers. It has also been a ceremony of passage for young Americans for nearly a century.
The word “prom was first used in the 1890s, referring to formal dances in which the guests of a party would display their fashions and dancing skills during the evening’s grand march. In the United States, parents and educators have come to regard the prom as an important lesson in social skills. Therefore, proms have been held every year in high schools for students to learn proper social behavior.
The first high school proms were held in the 1920s in America. By the 1930s, proms were common across the country. For many older Americans, the prom was a modest, home-grown affair in the school gymnasium. Prom-goers were well dressed but not fancily dressed up for the occasion: boys wore jackets and ties and girls their Sunday dresses. Couples danced to music provided by a local music band or a record player. After the 1960s, and especially since the 1980s, the high school prom in many areas has become a serious exercise in too much consumption, with boys renting expensive tuxedos and girls wearing designer gowns. Expensive cars were hired to drive the prom-goers to expensive restaurants or discos for an all-night entertainment.
Whether simple or abundant, proms have always been more or less unpleasant events for adolescents who worry about self-image and fitting in with their fellow teenagers. Prom night can be a dreadful experience for teens who are not good at social skills or for those who do not secure dates. Since the 1990s, alternative proms have been organized in some areas to meet the needs of particular students. For example, proms organized by and for homeless youth were reported. There were also “couple-free proms to which all students are welcome.
