Question
write about should students be paid to play sport in high school
Directions: Construct an original, well-organized argumentative response with a clear claim that incorporates expository/ explanatory techniques and answers the research question for the specific purpose and audience shown below. Your written response must be supported with evidence gathered from at least two of the sources provided.
Research Question: Consider both the deep emotional connections and life goals connected to sports. Should students be paid to play high-school sports?
Purpose & Audience: Convince your school administration that students should or should not be paid to play high-school sports. Choose a side that is different from the previous side you chose.
Sources: Carefully read the following sources, including the introductory information for each source.
First Source: Image – “Balancing Books and Goals”
Second Source: Article - "Should High School Athletes Be Paid?"
Third Source: Article – “School Is Not a Job”
Fourth Source: Anchor Text Excerpt – "The Crossover"
Directions: Construct an original, well-organized argumentative response with a clear claim that incorporates expository/ explanatory techniques and answers the research question for the specific purpose and audience shown below. Your written response must be supported with evidence gathered from at least two of the sources provided.
Research Question: Consider both the deep emotional connections and life goals connected to sports. Should students be paid to play high-school sports?
Purpose & Audience: Convince your school administration that students should or should not be paid to play high-school sports. Choose a side that is different from the previous side you chose.
Sources: Carefully read the following sources, including the introductory information for each source.
First Source: Image – “Balancing Books and Goals”
Second Source: Article - "Should High School Athletes Be Paid?"
Third Source: Article – “School Is Not a Job”
Fourth Source: Anchor Text Excerpt – "The Crossover"
Answers
GPT-5 mini
Claim: High-school students should not be paid to play school sports. Paying students would undermine academic priorities, create inequity and administrative burdens, and distort the emotional and developmental benefits that sports are meant to provide. Instead of direct pay, schools should invest in supports that protect students’ learning, health, and long-term opportunities.
Why payment would harm academic priorities
- The image “Balancing Books and Goals” visually reminds us that students must juggle academics and athletics. School-sponsored sports exist within an educational mission; compensation risks shifting that balance toward a job model. As the article “School Is Not a Job” argues, school’s primary purpose is learning, not employment. Treating athletic participation like paid labor would encourage students to prioritize short-term earnings over homework, college-prep, and intellectual growth. This isn’t a hypothetical: when the incentive is money, choices about class attendance, coursework, and future planning change. High school is a formative academic stage; preserving its educational focus is essential to students’ life goals.
Equity, logistics, and unintended consequences
- The article “Should High School Athletes Be Paid?” lays out practical objections that apply at the secondary level: who gets paid, how much, and from what budget? Schools differ widely in resources. Wealthier districts might be able to offer stipends, while underfunded schools could not, widening already-existing disparities. Deciding pay formulas would pit athletes against other student groups (e.g., musicians, debate teams) and require an administrative apparatus—payroll, tax reporting, labor rules—that public high schools are not set up to provide. Those complications risk diverting funds away from coaches, facilities, academic tutors, and extracurriculars that benefit more students.
Distortion of emotional meaning and developmental goals
- Sports in high school often provide identity, community, and emotional growth rather than monetary reward. The Anchor Text excerpt “The Crossover” shows how deep and personal the relationship between a young athlete and the game can be—sports teach resilience, teamwork, and self-expression. Introducing pay into that relationship runs the risk of commodifying a formative experience: teammates may begin to view one another as competitors for pay rather than collaborators, and students may adopt a transactional attitude that undermines intrinsic motivation, character development, and long-term goals like college or career planning. Emotional attachments to sport are powerful; the school’s role should be to cultivate those feelings in ways that further learning and well-being, not to monetize them.
Alternatives that respect students’ needs and life goals
- Rather than direct pay, schools can and should address the core concerns that lead advocates to call for pay: time demands, financial strain, and the need to support college aspirations.
- Provide academic support targeted to athletes (tutoring, flexible scheduling, study halls) so they can manage the time commitments shown in “Balancing Books and Goals.”
- Expand transportation, meals, and equipment funding so students don’t have to choose between buying necessities and participating.
- Strengthen college counseling and highlight scholarship pathways so athletics serve as a stepping-stone to long-term goals rather than a short-term income source.
- Offer need-based stipends or fee waivers (not pay-for-play) for low-income students to cover participation costs while avoiding the transactional dynamics of wages.
- Invest in health care, concussion management, and certified coaching—areas where funding has a direct impact on student safety and development.
Conclusion
Paying high-school athletes would create practical headaches, widen inequality, and change the nature of school sports from an educational, developmental activity into a job-like enterprise. The emotional and life-shaping benefits of sports—community, discipline, resilience, and college opportunity—are best protected by preserving the educational character of school athletics and by using targeted supports to address financial and time pressures. I urge the administration to reject payment for play and instead adopt policies that fund tutoring, equipment, transportation, health care, and scholarship support so that all students can pursue athletics without sacrificing their education or long-term goals.
Why payment would harm academic priorities
- The image “Balancing Books and Goals” visually reminds us that students must juggle academics and athletics. School-sponsored sports exist within an educational mission; compensation risks shifting that balance toward a job model. As the article “School Is Not a Job” argues, school’s primary purpose is learning, not employment. Treating athletic participation like paid labor would encourage students to prioritize short-term earnings over homework, college-prep, and intellectual growth. This isn’t a hypothetical: when the incentive is money, choices about class attendance, coursework, and future planning change. High school is a formative academic stage; preserving its educational focus is essential to students’ life goals.
Equity, logistics, and unintended consequences
- The article “Should High School Athletes Be Paid?” lays out practical objections that apply at the secondary level: who gets paid, how much, and from what budget? Schools differ widely in resources. Wealthier districts might be able to offer stipends, while underfunded schools could not, widening already-existing disparities. Deciding pay formulas would pit athletes against other student groups (e.g., musicians, debate teams) and require an administrative apparatus—payroll, tax reporting, labor rules—that public high schools are not set up to provide. Those complications risk diverting funds away from coaches, facilities, academic tutors, and extracurriculars that benefit more students.
Distortion of emotional meaning and developmental goals
- Sports in high school often provide identity, community, and emotional growth rather than monetary reward. The Anchor Text excerpt “The Crossover” shows how deep and personal the relationship between a young athlete and the game can be—sports teach resilience, teamwork, and self-expression. Introducing pay into that relationship runs the risk of commodifying a formative experience: teammates may begin to view one another as competitors for pay rather than collaborators, and students may adopt a transactional attitude that undermines intrinsic motivation, character development, and long-term goals like college or career planning. Emotional attachments to sport are powerful; the school’s role should be to cultivate those feelings in ways that further learning and well-being, not to monetize them.
Alternatives that respect students’ needs and life goals
- Rather than direct pay, schools can and should address the core concerns that lead advocates to call for pay: time demands, financial strain, and the need to support college aspirations.
- Provide academic support targeted to athletes (tutoring, flexible scheduling, study halls) so they can manage the time commitments shown in “Balancing Books and Goals.”
- Expand transportation, meals, and equipment funding so students don’t have to choose between buying necessities and participating.
- Strengthen college counseling and highlight scholarship pathways so athletics serve as a stepping-stone to long-term goals rather than a short-term income source.
- Offer need-based stipends or fee waivers (not pay-for-play) for low-income students to cover participation costs while avoiding the transactional dynamics of wages.
- Invest in health care, concussion management, and certified coaching—areas where funding has a direct impact on student safety and development.
Conclusion
Paying high-school athletes would create practical headaches, widen inequality, and change the nature of school sports from an educational, developmental activity into a job-like enterprise. The emotional and life-shaping benefits of sports—community, discipline, resilience, and college opportunity—are best protected by preserving the educational character of school athletics and by using targeted supports to address financial and time pressures. I urge the administration to reject payment for play and instead adopt policies that fund tutoring, equipment, transportation, health care, and scholarship support so that all students can pursue athletics without sacrificing their education or long-term goals.