The Academic Aspect

Regrets are funny things.

For some - regret is to not achieve a particular goal.

For others - regret is to reach that goal at a price that was too high.

Each player needs to know what his goal is - (be it academic or athletic) - and what he is willing to sacrifice to achieve that goal.

The answer is seldom the same for any two players.

My son plays baseball year round and maintains a 4.0 average. He also was class president, member of Student Council, Fellowship of Christain Athletes, and tonight was inducted into the National Honor Society.

He also has a job.

If you believe that "opportunity cost" means that since your kid plays sports and therefore isn't expected to maintain the same grades, I think you do your son's a disservice. If you expect high grades, they will work to achieve them. It isn't easy, there are nights when he might get 5 hours of sleep, but he gets it done. And every one of his classes is an AP class as well.

Of all the amazing plays my son has made in baseball over the years, tonight I was more proud of him as he was inducted in the NHS. Because, one day, baseball will be over, and hopefully his academic achievements will help him in the real world moreso than his ability to run a 4.4 40.

I am a firm believer in athletes getting better grades while playing--why?--they learn how to budget time--there is no leeway for fooling around

Even in college, I have seen where many athletes have higher GPAs in-season. Could be time management, but could be because they take less hours and perhaps, easier courses. In HS, my son has always done better in-season, as he does not have the free time to put things off.

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Originally posted by KellerDad:
My son plays baseball year round and maintains a 4.0 average. He also was class president, member of Student Council, Fellowship of Christain Athletes, and tonight was inducted into the National Honor Society.

He also has a job.

If you believe that "opportunity cost" means that since your kid plays sports and therefore isn't expected to maintain the same grades, I think you do your son's a disservice. If you expect high grades, they will work to achieve them. It isn't easy, there are nights when he might get 5 hours of sleep, but he gets it done. And every one of his classes is an AP class as well.

Of all the amazing plays my son has made in baseball over the years, tonight I was more proud of him as he was inducted in the NHS. Because, one day, baseball will be over, and hopefully his academic achievements will help him in the real world moreso than his ability to run a 4.4 40.

Congratulations..........you should be very proud.

Time management is the solution, and we hope it works for my kid. By the way, I might have made him sound dumb.........3.20 is the GPA. The school who called has very high standards, i.e, a 3.2 is average, cream of the ****, but then again, maybe its why their D1 baseball and football program suffer??

By the way, I was an honor student, solid college grades, and am a CPA. I am aware of what it takes personally, and as a parent to achieve high academics.

Keller Dad - It sounds like your son is heading in the right direction and will be successful in his future endeavors.

For me, education is paramount. First I try to teach my son to learn from his old man's experiences. I'm a little old school in that in our house, a "B" is considered passing. (this was the rule when I was growing up - while I had the ability, I was more interested in other things - which meant I didn't always make the house passing grade. And becasue of this my college opportunities were limited due to finances.

Did one semester at a CC and joined the military - where I proceeded to be on the "21-year plan to get my B.S. (Wound up taking classes in from over 10 schools finishing with an overall 3.8 GPA.)

Things worked out - retired from the Air Force, got a great job, and now I'm in an MBA program (but boy did I have to work my backside off).

I don't want my son to go through the same hassels I did to get a degree. But getting a college degree is probably the most important thing most people should do.

I've also told my son, that while he may be a decent ball player, don't count on getting a baseball scholarship. And if he wants to play baseball in college, he's going to have to get an academic scholarship - which means he's got to keep the grades up.

I just love to rock the boat -

I am a true believer in a well rounded education. Which means that education is more than formal class room - books and studying.

They did tests on my son in 2nd grade due to his advanced math skills and he was offered some very prestigious educational opportunities at the university.

Just happened that the best programs were in the summer and interfered with baseball. Every year they offered, every year he chose baseball - for 10 years.

Did he miss out on some awesome learning experiences - yes. My younger son has never been offered those opportunities and would give anything to have them.

Regets - NONE.

Baseball was his one true passion. His success on the field helped an extremely shy child grow into a confident young man.

That confidence has helped him as a young adult more than any additional educational opportunities ever would have.

Education is paramount. But education comes in many forms

AParent---

At least when YOU "rock the boat," you always manage to do it with class!

Aparent makes some great points.

My son will never be a brain surgeon, or any other academic wizzard with an off the chart IQ. But he will be a darn good history teacher. I'm a firm believer that it is not what school you go to, but what you get out of that school. Which brings us back to square 1, the baseball experience, a notch or 2 above street smarts is diamond smarts. Combine that with a good education regardless of the field and you will find a success story. Baseball has provided my son many priceless intangibles that a book could not teach.

Kudos to those kids who can make the grade at any level, but, they are an exception to the rule. Good grades are not always measured on the report card, it's all about the effort made to make that grade.

AParent, of course you are taking a very unpopular stand on the HSBBW but I happen to agree with you. Education should not be measure by where you’ve been but what you learned while you were there.
Fungo

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AParent, of course you are taking a very unpopular stand on the HSBBW but I happen to agree with you. Education should not be measure by where you’ve been but what you learned while you were there.
Fungo

I'd like to add that it is also "what you do with that education" that is a final measurement.

To each his own. Through HS the emphasis in our house was on academics and that all important GPA for college. The phrase "No B's, No Keys" was a great motivator! Now in college we feel it's up to our son to provide his own motivation to get those good grades and take away with him a good education. Though I must say the word "eligibility" is now a great motivator.

My son is a two sport athlete (baseball and football). When anyone asks his football coach if this past season was successful he replies, "Ask me again in 10 years when we see what these young men are doing with their lives and I will tell you whether the season was a success"

We learn lessons every day in and out of the classroom. How we apply those lessons shapes our success.

AParent - I agree with you 100%! Education is always important in our lives, but so are many other things.

I would have loved for my son to have graduated HS with a 4.0. However, I accepted a much lower GPA and to be honest was thankful that he always remained eligible to play and had good tests scores to get accepted into every college he applied to.

I agree with rz1 - for my son's chosen profession, I think he'll rise to the top despite a not so great HS academic record (jury still out on the college record). There are many pieces to the puzzle that make one successful.

I agree with everyone! Also think the decision of where to put the emphasis, academic or baseball has to be up to each family....

We put it on academics and as it turned out he had so many more college/baseball opportunities because of his grades........he has not to date worked a paying job.....we always told him he had 2 jobs....his grades and his baseball....there is no way he could have worked part time in high school and saved the amount of money he is receiving in academic scholarship.....no way....

Again....it is a personal decision....if we had to decide all over....we would again go with academics.....and son always seemed to take as much pride and enjoyment from his academic honors as he did baseball....

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Also think the decision of where to put the emphasis, academic or baseball has to be up to each family....

Very good discussion, and I agree with arizonared on the above quote. I would take it one step further: It depends on the kid.

We have two sons, and they are so different in their natural abilities. The oldest has always been noticed as an athlete, while the younger excelled in academics. They have different strengths and weaknesses, and different interests and passions. I don't think any amount of guidance and assistance on our part, or effort and dedication from them, could have made the first one a straight-A student, or turned the second one into the star of his sports teams.

We pushed the oldest for a long time to try to get better grades, but it never seemed to make much difference. Finally when he was a HS junior, my husband said that was enough - he wasn't going to push or worry any longer. Our son was going to class, doing his homework, studying for tests, and learning academic skills. He was getting good enough grades to remain eligible for sports. More importantly to us, he was a truly kind person with good friends, fun to be around, respected by his peers and HS teachers. He even chose to attend church services and events sometimes when it wasn't expected or required. We stopped worrying so much, and he seemed to get the same grades anyway, and was eventually accepted into his first choice college, where he is succeeding so far (soph year).

My point is not that parents shouldn't stress the importance of academics to their kids - it can sure open up a lot more options, as it has for our younger son. But just as not every kid has the potential to be a starter on the baseball team, not all of them have the ability to become straight-A students either, and sometimes we might just have to recognize their best efforts as being their best efforts.

lafmom,

I'm glad mine did NOT graduate with a 4.0 even though he only missed it by one B+.

He is a bit of a perfectionist and he was visably relieved when he got that grade because it was now out of his hands. Raising a perfectionist is MUCH harder that I ever thought it would be.

MNmom

I'm with you. Each child is unique (and I woudn't have it any other way. My youngest is nothing like his older brother. I not only ask this one if he did his homework - I have to ask him if he wrote it neat enough the teacher could read it.

Great points of course Julie. Both of my kids came and had lunch with me earlier this past week. I inquired to my HS daughter when we'd be getting her grades for the first semester. She said they were already available on the online system where we can check grades. I commented that I didn't know where I had put her password and PIN. My son laughed and said "you never had to write mine down because you knew it by heart". Then he preceeded to tell my co-worker who had joined us how he would get daily calls "why is this grade so and so". Of course, my co-worker, had allowed me to vent over his grades on many occasions, but she played along like it was news to her! However, it would be hard to find a young man with more drive and passion on a baseball field.

My daughter is like your perfectionist son, AParent (in the classroom, that is). A "B" on a paper can send her into tears - she desires to have those rewards of the hard work and dedication in the classroom. She also has played sports like my son but has never been considered a top athlete and never will. She's done it for fun and at a much more relaxed pace than her brother.

They're all different and shine in many different ways. Part of what makes each one so special!

I guess that's what is so important to remember.

Some kids play multiple sports, and still get good grades. Some kids struggle at sports and in their grades. Yet, each and every one of them has something special in them. It's that something special that each of them has that makes us love them, not their athletic prowess or their academic success.

We need to learn to LIVE and have no regrets later.

Some threads are just more philosophical than others and this is one of them. Some excellent perspectives have been offered here. I find accepting things as they are hard to do sometimes but have gotten better at it as I've gotten older. My academic story is sort of like Goldilocks and the three bears.

My 21 year old son gave us all sorts of problems and barely graduated from high school. His academic performance can basically be attributed to not caring, laziness, and rebellion. We tried, trust me we tried with him.

My 18 year old baseball son has always been a self-motivated type. He never once as a kid had to be told to do his homework or once gave me a reason to question his efforts. He didn't have a 4.0 but his grades were very good. I never questioned any of his grades because I could see the honest effort he put in at home.

My 12 year old daughter. Now we can talk about superior grades. I can relate to lafmom's story about her daughter. She is extremely motivated to do well in the classroom because that is simply what she enjoys doing.

My philosophy is that each situation does require different decision making. No two students are alike. No two athletes are alike. In the case of the student athlete, even more complex decisons have to be made to try and optimize or accomodate these multiple interests. It certainly is a personal decision in each case.

You're so right....about it depending on the individual child.....when son brought home his first bad grade....we took baseball away from him.....and that was his last bad grade....but if you had done that to me at his age...I'd have said so what....and kept right on sleeping through math!

AParent said it well.....we appreciate and love them for the people they are.....and raise them the best we can!

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IMO...is is a great thread...lots of wisdom here from all regarding academics and fit and individual interests, apptitudes and personailities...

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I can say without a doubt that baseball was the carrot that kept my son from "F" territory in HS---and it became even a bigger carrot in college--he graduated from college with a higher GPA than he had in HS.

In this day and age academics are the key to life after baseball,at least in my mind.

As TR called it a carrot we too used the academics as a motivator along with baseball. He had certain dream baseball schools that were also top academic schools. Every time he mentioed the baseball end we threw back the academics. It worked real well and in the end, it worked even better since the number of "doors available" to him was larger due to his academic success. Son #2 will be a challange.....