James S. Coleman

Athletics in High School

Research—based on the visibility of athletic stars, on most desired achievement, on the composition of the leading crowd, on status criteria in leading-crowd membership, on popularity—demonstrates conclusively that athletics is far and away more important as a value among high school stu dents than intellectual achievement. And the school itself seems to encourage rather than to discourage this relative evaluation. There must be basic reasons for these phenomena, and these may be discerned in the functions performed by ath letics not only in the school but also in the community. Among boys, for example, it has been found that athletics has a demo cratizing effect, breaking up organization based on background and reconstituting it on the basis of common activity or achievement. Athletics serves an important function in moti vating students. It generates strong positive identification with the school ; without athletics the school would be lifeless for the student, deficient in collective goals. With athletics, it is possible for all students to identify with their school through their teams. Not only schools but whole communities depend upon the collective enthusiasm generated by their local high school athletic teams. The problem for the school is to find a way to have the functions now performed by athletic teams performed in ways more conducive to the intellectual aims of the school. Debate used to serve this function, music contests may also, as well as drama contests, and mathematics tournaments. It is possible that social and economic games played by means of complex computers may come to perform, on a far more intellectual level, the integrating function now performed almost exclusively by athletics.