So much about big-time college sports is criticized. But the worst scandal is almost never mentioned: the academic fraud wherein the student-athletes, so-called, are admitted without even remotely adequate credentials and then aren't educated so much as they are just kept eligible.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the flawed system in big-time college sports where student-athletes are often admitted without proper qualifications and their education is neglected.
Frank Deford highlights a significant yet overlooked issue in big-time college sports, namely the academic fraud that occurs by admitting student-athletes who lack the requisite academic credentials. Instead of receiving a genuine education, these individuals are merely kept eligible to play, compromising both their academic integrity and the educational standards of the institutions. This critique sheds light on the broader implications of prioritizing sports over education.
In practice
In a speech addressing the need for reforms in college athletics, one might say, 'As Frank Deford pointed out, we must confront the academic fraud surrounding student-athletes.'
I think there are more good sportswriters doing more good sportswriting than ever before. But I also believe that the one thing that's largely gone out is what made sport such fertile literary territory - the characters, the tales, the humor, the pain, what Hollywood calls 'the arc.'
Sport is an art: it has incredible appeal everywhere on this earth, and it fills so many human hearts with passion that it's impossible to dismiss.
When you have all these new police officers and resource officers coming into schools, what I'm worried is going to happen is we're going to increase the school-to-prison pipeline, which disproportionately affects students of color and lower social status.
We're so preoccupied with protecting children from disappointment and discomfort that we're inadvertently excusing them from growing up.
When you're given a newspaper column, you're not being paid to sit on a fence and scratch your chin and say 'On the one hand this' and 'On the other hand that.' You're getting paid for your opinion.
For me, literacy means freedom. For the individual and for society.
Our task - and the task of all education - is to understand the present world, the world in which we live and make our choices.
Educational equality doesn't guarantee equality on the labor market. Even the most developed countries are not gender-equal. There are still glass ceilings and 'leaky pipelines' that prevent women from getting ahead in the workplace.
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