It is short sighted to promote sportsmen as the role models for the youth of a country.

So, now for the final round... great. Much as we agreed that there would only be a conclusion in this round, I did leave my last round devoid of new argumentation, so I feel that it's fine for me to take a liberty here. I'm disappointed that my opponent has disappeared (and I hope she's alright), but I've already written this post (actually, had it written about a week ago), so I'm going to post it. Rather than concluding, I'll just state that voters can look at our arguments and see which have more merit, support, and are better elucidated. Simple enough. I'm going to use this round to discuss a more psychological issue with pro athletes acting as role models, specifically focusing on the trade-off between academics and sports. Before anyone gets upset, I'm not saying that sports and academics cannot be done en tandem. They can. The problem here involves what kids see as their options in life moving forward, and therefore where they choose to spend the majority of their time rather than a balance. "In 1988, Dr. Harry Edwards, Professor of""Sociology at UC- Berkley, boldly affirmed, "The single-minded pursuit of sports, fame, and fortune is approaching an institutionalized triple tragedy in Black society."" Edwards concluded that among the catastrophes, was, "the tragedy of cultural and institutional under development in Black society overall, partially as a consequence of the talent drain toward sports and away from other critically vital areas of occupational and career emphasis (medicine, law, economics, politics, education, the technical fields, etc)."[1] This isn't just true in 1988. Educators are still asking why growing numbers of black parents are putting more emphasis on athletics than academics, though it seems that the biggest reason is because many people of this particular minority group in America believe that this is the only way to achieve a substantial living for kids who have poor academic skills. In effect, as Harvard adviser Dr. Alvin Pouissant was stated, "too many black students are putting all their eggs in one basket."[1] The amount of kids who go on to play pro are abysmally small. Baseball: 11.6% of college players, 0.6% of high school players Football: 1.7% of college players, 0.08% of high school players Men's ice hockey: 1.3% of college players, 0.1% of high school players Men's basketball: 1.2% of college players, 0.03% of high school players Men's soccer: 1.0% of college players, 0.04% of high school players Women's basketball: 0.9% of college players, 0.03% of high school players [2] In other words, not everyone's getting in. In fact, very few are ever going to rise to that level. And many of those that are on their way or actually do get in are permanently sidelined by career ending injuries. That won't prevent people from trying, but it does create a concern with regards to using professional athletes as our role models, since that becomes what we aim for. Sports writer Scott Bakalar states this well: "There are few people who have the talent of Michael Jordan. But there are high school seniors who feel they are capable of becoming superstars."[1] These kids are placing all of their aspirations on reaching a goal that is beyond the vast majority of them, and they pursue it so doggedly that they often shirk academics. Alright, so what effects is this having? They're dramatic. "Across four cohorts, 50.2% of black male student-athletes graduated within six years, compared to 66.9% of student/athletes overall, 72.8% of undergraduate students overall, and 55.5% of black undergraduate men overall. 96.1% of these NCAA Division I colleges and universities graduated black male student-athletes at rates lower than student-athletes overall. 97.4% of these institutions graduated black male student-athletes at rates lower than undergraduate students overall."[3] Colleges often overemphasize athletics for these students, causing a lack of identification with their academic processes. This often leads to high drop out rates.[4] High schools are actually easing GPA requirements for athletes.[5] This means more athletes at these schools will now be able to let their GPAs slide even further, neglecting coursework in favor of athletic performance. All of this adds up to a situation where athletics is often preferred to academics. This is specifically because the majority of black role models in the U.S. are pro athletes. They are drawn towards the allure of earning millions in pro sports, and pursue it to the detriment of their academics. Again, I'm not stating that a student-athlete is a bad thing to be " if anything, the drive that helps student athletes to succeed in both. But the reality is that that isn't what pro athletes model. The vast majority of pro athletes don't even have a college degree. Only 3% of baseball players and managers have a 4-year degree.[6] Many basketball players are drafted out of high school or partway through their college career. While many of these players return to school later in life, they hardly present good academic role models.[7] 1. http://searchwarp.com... 2. http://www.businessinsider.com... 3. http://hechingerreport.org... 4. http://pcmbb.files.wordpress.com... 5. http://espn.go.com... 6. http://www.tampabay.com... 7. http://www.nytimes.com...