I read an article about college level athletes and their academic levels. It explained that many college athletes cannot read past a third grade level or at all. Many people don't believe this is fair. They think everyone should have the same standards. According to the article teachers are payed for classes or grades that are not taught or deserved.
We are learning about plagiarism a lot this year. I think this could fit in that category. This athletes are either not doing their work or turning in someone else's work. If they are lying about classes, grades, etc., then how can anyone believe that their results for the entrance exams are true. The fact that these people will eventually graduate means that they will be doing public jobs. They possibly won't be able to read but they can become doctors or lawyers.
I think this is ludicrous. It scares me a little. This should not be happening or be possible. I believe in equality
and they should have to work as hard as every other person. I wouldn't want to go to a college that allows this. It is something that gives young people a reason not to care about school as long as they can play a sport well. I hope that schools get this under control and make sure it doesn't continue in the future. In the future, when I'm looking into colleges, I will certainly look into this.
The author supports his claim that this is happening by giving details, statistics, and percentages. The article states "Some athletes don't aim for high scores when taking entrance exams, looking only to score high enough to become NCAA eligible." This is one of the many problems that occur when academics are not deemed important. He told about how, while they were doing the investigation, they talked to many colleges. The results they got from every college varied. One college that had a program in place to help solve this problem. At Iowa State, their program is "any athlete who is specially admitted... is mandated to start school in the summer term, where they are given remediation." This remediation/tutoring is available to the other students as well. I think this is a great idea. Everything in this text makes this seem like something that is terrible but can be fixed.
Phayes, Michael. "Masuk football." Photograph. Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 16 Oct. 2011. Media. 26 Jan. 2014. < http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masuk_football.jpg >.
Ganim, Sara. "CNN analysis: Some college athletes play like adults, read like 5th-graders." CNN U.S. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc, 8 Jan. 2014. Web. 26 Jan. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/07/us/ncaa-athletes-reading-scores/index.html?hpt=hp_t1>.
Destiny I think you did a good job; I definitely saw an improvement with your usage of commas and apostrophes and liked how you used some bigger vocabulary words like “. . .ludicrous” and “. . .deemed. . .” It is ridiculous that they are letting these athletes slip by in school so that they can focus more on sports. Some of the mistakes on your blog include a misspelling “. . .payed. . .” which should be “paid,” and some words that need to be replaced such as “. . .fit in. . .” which should be ”. . .fit into. . .” Another word that needs to be changed is “this athletes. . .” which should be “these athletes” instead because “this” is singular while ”these” is plural. Furthermore, you are missing a question mark where you wrote that “. . .how can anyone believe that their results for the entrance exams are true.(<-- see?)” It doesn’t need a period, but a question mark. Looking at one of your integrated quotes, I noticed that in the quote “any athlete who is specially admitted... is mandated to start school in the summer term, where they are given remediation" you are missing the first word from the original article which is “there.” If you don’t want to use a part of a quote, then use three periods in a row to show that there is more to the quote, but don’t leave words out if you don’t use the three periods. Moving on, what did you mean when you wrote that “Many people don't believe this is fair. They think everyone should have the same standards.” So they don’t think it’s fair that college athletes can’t read past a third grade level? Why?! It doesn’t make sense to me why you wouldn’t think it’s fair because those athletes basically have the brains of squirrels and that’s only going to hurt them; not help them.
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