<p>An interesting opinion piece in today's NYT concerning athletes and Universities. It should generate some strong opinions from the parents of musicians. </p>
<p>I think the comparison is spurious. I know of no prospective music major who has been allowed to go through high school and come out nearly illiterate, whether or not s/he attended a regular school or something as bogus as University High School. Nor do I know of college music majors who receive help from coaches, or are allowed to take courses designed specifically to help them meet graduation requirements with minimal effort.</p>
<p>It is interesting that there is no organization whose mission is to ensure that music majors maintain academic standards. A simple reason: such an organization is not needed. But there is a huge reason why NCAA exists. 'Nuf said.</p>
<p>marite- Keep in mind that strong musicians that don't meet academic standards in high school, and I assure you there are many, go to conservatories. They get lots of academic nudging at the conservatories, and have to meet very minimum standards in many cases. A number of kids who graduated from Interlochen with D went this route- some ran into big trouble when they decided against music and tried to get into a regular college. I am NOT saying the conservatory route is easy- there are language requirements, etc.- but don't try to say all musicians are also strong students.</p>
<p>No, I don't say so, nor do I suggest that all athletes are academically weak. But I would suspect that the "regular colleges"that conservatories drop outs get into do not make any allowance for them, whereas far too many make allowance for athletes.</p>
<p>In reference to Marite's mention of the "university high school" diploma, heres an article from the NYT about the $399 HS diploma. You too can "graduate" with just a high enough GPA to qualify for scholarship $$ in your team sport <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/sports/ncaafootball/27school.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/sports/ncaafootball/27school.html</a></p>
<p>I have a slightly different take on this issue. First, I basically agree with Marite. Second, from my observation high school students who focus on the arts more often give up on science and math than they do on English and the humanities. Not that all do by any means, nor, from my observation, are these "lopsided" kids by any means lagging in intelligence or the character needed to succeed in academics or career. But they often make what are (in my view) unfortunate or premature decisions.</p>
<p>Poor Mr McDermott. First he tried athletics and quit after 2 years. Then he tried music and did not have the ability. It sounds that his college experience was frustrating, at best. A couple of his points are gross exaggerations. I suspect there are extremely few musicians who have played 20,000 hrs by the age of 20. That would be almost 6 hours/day, every day for 10 years. Second he seems to believe that conservatories and music departments grant degrees solely for performance. Some conservatories award a performers certificate for performance. A degree requires additional course work. I would agree that it is a shame for a student to meet the degree requirements by only doing the minimum. Some of the academic requirements at conservatories are pretty thin. Of course some athletes also manage to graduate with minimal academics. Science majors can graduate with few liberal arts courses and the LA students can get by with little or no math or science.</p>
<p>Mr McDermott's comments about parents forcing their kids into music does not match my observations. My D did not attend Tanglewood, but she did attend several summer music programs. The VAST majority of kids were there because they wanted to be.</p>
<p>The fact is, when you graduate from a conservatory, you get a Bachelor of Music. Some schools BM is more academic than others, but those who are familiar with the degree know that it has much less academic involvement than a BA in Music. A person with a BM demonstrates a high level of proficiency on their instrument. It does not indicate that they have mastered academic material other than that needed to add to their performance capabilities. Maybe colleges should offer a Bachelor of Athletics that would indicate a high level of proficiency as athletes. But until they do, athletes still need to complete an academic degree if they want to participate in college level athletics.</p>
<p>I think we spend far too much energy scapegoating colleges for not providing athletes with an education. First of all, they get more there than if they weren't there. Secondly, for the most part, neither the schools nor the athletes themselves are under the impression that they are there to become brain surgeons. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in 2010, 86% of the jobs that will require a college degree will not require a single skill that needs to be obtained in college. In other words, a college athlete who happens to graduate (that's another issue) will be well-equipped for 86% of college grad-entry jobs, and maybe better than most, given the discipline most college athletics requires. </p>
<p>So they haven't read Tolstoy. Do you think our current President has? My major complaint about college athletics is that, when it comes to the athletes, we don't pay 'em.</p>
<p>Mini, the current president may not have been hurt by not reading Tolstoy but it's a pity he didn't get a better grasp of the dimensions of war and peace.</p>
<p>I think we do recruited athletes a disservice when they are categorically labled "dumb jocks". As the tv ad says ... most of them will be going pro in something other than sports.</p>
<p>I know a recruited athlete, currently at Harvard, who scored an 800 on his SAT verbal and was the #2 student in his graduating class at a high stat public high school. </p>
<p>This high school produced FIVE all american lacrosse players in 2005. Their colleges are Harvard Cornell Middlebury Navy and an LAC whose name escapes me. Every single one of those boys was taking Honors classes, AP courses, made the honor roll every quarter and had over 1200 SATs. I don't have the specific stats of this group ... but the average SAT for this 100% college bound high school was 1190 for the 2005 graduating class.</p>
<p>These are not dumb jocks. These are not kids who don't deserve their college admissions letters. They are student whose extra curricular activities focused on athletics and who wanted get an education and play lacrosse as well.</p>
<p>"Mini, the current president may not have been hurt by not reading Tolstoy but it's a pity he didn't get a better grasp of the dimensions of war and peace."</p>
<p>Actually, if he were to spend time reading "War and Peace" now, he'd likely not have time for other things.</p>
<p>(That would be good! ;)) Sadly, he hasn't gotten through "My Pet Goat" yet (but I do hear he's working on it....)</p>
<p>Has anyone read this? I am in the middle of it and it is very informative I think. A lot of information that we were not aware of.</p>
<p>Just wondering if others who have read it and have Ivy League athletes find it valid.</p>
<p>As a middle income parent, the sections on financial aid are very interesting.</p>