Should There Be An Athletic College Degree?

My point is that we need to raise the standards back to where we do not have remedial classes in colleges, we need to insist that student athletes adhere to the same academic and honor code as other students and we need for universities to get realistic and stop building ivory towers on the back of taxpayers. Student athletes who get scholarships and leave before they graduate to pursue pro sports should have to pay back their scholarship to the institution. The problems are starting as early as middle school. I teach high school and I see these kids who are gifted athletes and many of them are given a smooth path just because they are on the team. As a society we need to get away from this worshipful attitude toward athletes and celebrities and start concentrating on what makes our society, our culture, our nation better. Right now most schools have the attitude that all high school graduates are destined for college. Instead we should provide access to pre-college classes for those students who are willing to do the work and provide meaningful vocational training for those kids who need to work the day after they graduate. There are plenty of jobs that pay good money that don't require college education. But our educational foundations are focused on just college for all kids and that is creating a situation where curriculum is fluffed up and dumbed down to make it where some kids can pass even though they don't deserve it. I teach high school, and believe me, even in the burbs, kids cannot write, they cannot read and they will not extend themselves to work at either discipline.