Brainstorm for a few minutes by talking or writing about your initial reactions to these two questions:

What exactly is the value of having school-sponsored sports programs in high schools?

Are the costs — in money and time — worth those benefits?

Now, ask yourself how much of your reaction is how you feel about the issue rather than what you think or know about it. If you play high school sports, how does that experience influence your viewpoint? Do you know if countries other than the United States have sports as part of their high school culture? What are some of the issues you’d like to know more about before you take a stand on whether sports should be part of high school?