12/21/24
March 01, 2006
Sham schools: Basketball factories are disgrace to education, game: Redemption Christian Academy in Troy, N.Y., where the less-than-rigorous curriculum included spelling class.
I'm not even sure spelling class is a bad idea.
posted by justgary at 12:24 PM on March 01, 2006
hookt on fonix rilly werkt four meee.
posted by wingnut4life at 12:35 PM on March 01, 2006
Now that UTEP's sports program is back on track, ( thanks Coach Price), I just hope that none of our past, current or future basketball players are from any of these sham schools. Thanks for the post.
posted by chucodimebag at 01:45 PM on March 01, 2006
Colleges do this all the time. It is called Physical Education class. Stay at home and get credit for the class so they can play basketball, football, or whatever.
posted by dbt302 at 01:52 PM on March 01, 2006
SI does this story like once a year. Somehow they never mention the hockey factories. Exact same setup, different sport. Cannot for the life of me figure what might be different. I almost got my ass kicked by the hockey team from one of those schools. As they walked to their dressing room after waxing my high school I said, "Great game goalie. How's the wife and kids," at which point I was surrounded by every player on the squad. An underclassman next to me said, "I've got your back." To this day, I have no idea what that was in reference to. Holding my hand in the ambulance, I suppose.
posted by yerfatma at 01:56 PM on March 01, 2006
Uhhh... no one really cares about hockey, thats whats different. No, I'm Joking of course, I think hockey is the greatest and most interesting sport there is, its so... exciting! Anyway, This article just briefly mentions, right at the very bottom of the page (for those of you who didn't make it there), that the problem really stems from the fact that the US school system is dictated, and I would add tarnished, by a HUGE cultural bias. This is of course no excuse for the destruction of education within any community, but it does point to an issue which needs to be addressed. Until the US educational system can start addressing the cultural learning differences, and make more of an effort to teach in ways that are effective in the culture that they are targeting, we are going to see schools such as these continue to proliferate and flourish. Everyone wants an opportunity to excel, and many of these kids don't have that opportunity in the current school system.
posted by everett at 02:29 PM on March 01, 2006
That is the first post I have been able to successfully make in what seems like weeks. thanks SpoFi, you guys are the greatest!
posted by everett at 02:30 PM on March 01, 2006
have you heard of unlv. there basketball players cant spell basketball
posted by arturo at 02:51 PM on March 01, 2006
"there" basketball players huh? Arturo, you didn't play ball at UNLV by any chance, did you?
posted by everett at 02:55 PM on March 01, 2006
What worries me is that of all the kids that come from schools like these, How many actually GET to the NBA and how many of those actually DO WELL? I like college basketball more than football because the game seems more fair There are fewer "gimme games" set up by the coaches to get easy wins and pad their stats. It seems every year there is at lest 2 or 3 tams that go undefeated in football but in basketball you may get one team every couple of years. i mention this because these kids get fooled into thinking once they get in a good college school they have a good shot at the pros only to find out that even the WORST b-ball pro was extremely good in college. My favorite example of a good college player not making it in the pros is the no 1 draft pic in 84 (I believe) the same year MJ came out. and where is he now? anyone know how his career went?
posted by blakrain at 02:56 PM on March 01, 2006
hmmmm... I think you are talking about Sam Bowie, but he was not #1, he was #2, after Hakeem Olajuwan. Obviously Olajuwan was a P.I.M.P, but Bowie was not bad either. He was obviously no Jordan, but he still managed to put up career numbers of 10.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.78 blocks per game over 10 seasons despite starting his career with significant injury problems. So maybe, not the best example, but your point is well taken, and I think that you are proabably right that ,most of these kids don't see the bigger picture at the time, and that some of those financially driven false hopes hurt kids in the long run.
posted by everett at 03:19 PM on March 01, 2006
i mention this because these kids get fooled into thinking once they get in a good college school they have a good shot at the pros only to find out that even the WORST b-ball pro was extremely good in college. My favorite example of a good college player not making it in the pros is the no 1 draft pic in 84 (I believe) the same year MJ came out. and where is he now? anyone know how his career went? I bet that these kids are still better off in the long run than the kids that didn't have the promise of basketball at all. Just because you aren't in the NBA, it doesn't mean that you can't make a decent living in Europe playing basketball. Also, if you are from a poor neighborhood, how else are you going to improve your life? If they aren't good in school, then basketball or some other sport is their ticket to college and (hopefully) a better life.
posted by bperk at 03:31 PM on March 01, 2006
Funny, I was just researching this topic a bit recently because of a game here in Cincinnati between local North College Hill HS (ranked #2 nationally, at the time at least... don't know if they still are) and Oak Hills Academy(Ranked #1). I thought it was interesting that Oak Hills doesn't play in a league but rather travels the countryside. Oh, and Akeem Olajuwon? I'm guessing, hoping actually, you mean Sam Bowie, blaktrain (on preview: Dammit! too slow). And everett, just my $.02 but I would have gone after the missing apostrophe in "cant" as I think that sentence works with either "their" or "there".
posted by srw12 at 03:33 PM on March 01, 2006
Good point about the missing apostrophe SRW, ( I love it when we get down to the real substantial issues here on SpoFi).
posted by everett at 03:40 PM on March 01, 2006
There's plenty of blame all around in this situation...but let's dump some of the blame on these kids parents or legal guardians too...are they looking out for the kids...or the "bling-bling" from a pro contract the chances are the kid will never get...
posted by phillyolhead at 09:52 PM on March 01, 2006
I just went back and looked at the 1st round picks from 84. I did nto realize who was in that group! Damn!! Good crop (understatement intentional)
posted by blakrain at 02:24 PM on March 02, 2006
I went to a school like that. It was called a Florida public school.