Tag: Student Time In Sports Compared To College Prep

Students Spend Too Much Time In High School Sports Compared To College Prep

Will Fitzhugh, The Concord Review

I recently received a history paper submitted by a high school Junior who was kind enough

to enumerate the hours he has spent on athletics in a recent year:Football: 13 hours a week, 13 weeks per year. (169 hours),Basketball: 12 hours a week, 15 weeks per year. (180 hours)

Lacrosse: 12 hours a week, 15 weeks per year. (180 hours)

Sumer Lacrosse: 10 hours per week, 15 weeks per year. (150 hours)

This yields a total, by my calculations, of

169 + 180 + 180 hours = 529 hours + 150 in the summer, for a new total of 679 hours.

We are told that there is no time for high school students to write serious history research papers, which they need to do to prepare themselves for college academic requirements. It seems likely that this young man will be better prepared in athletics than in academics.  If it were considered important for all students to read history books and to write a serious history research paper, 679 hours (84 eight-hour days) might just be enough for them to manage that.

This particular young man made the time on his own to write a 28-page history research paper with a bibliography and 107 endnotes and submit it to The Concord Review, but this was not his high school requirement.