Beer and Circus: How Big-Time College Sports Is Crippling Undergraduate Education
by Murray Sperber
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Book Summary Information
Author: Murray SperberEdition: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2000-08-31
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 322
Book Reviews of Beer and Circus: How Big-Time College Sports Is Crippling Undergraduate Education
Book Review: Thought provoking, but flawed
Summary: 3 Stars
As a faculty member at a school (the University of South Alabama) that recently decided to field a Division I football team, I read Beer & Circus with some interest.
The best two things that one can say about this book are a) it is an entertaining book that you want to read & b) it is thought provoking. I would recommend Beer & Circus to anyone interested in the role of athletics at the contemporary university.
However, I have two criticisms:
1) Perhaps the most pointed criticism I would make is that Sperber does not provide sufficient evidence to back his basic argument - that college sports ruin undergraduate education. Yes, there clearly is a link between partying & sports. But how do we know that sports are responsible for all of the other problems that Sperber cites in undergraduate education? Where is the link? His argument is unconvincing on this crucial point.
2) Sperber's "solutions" are entirely unrealistic. He urges schools to "imitate Rice" (page 252). This is completely unrealistic. Not every school can be a wealthy, private institution filled with the best undergraduate students. By definition, most schools - and their students - are average.
Sperber urges (page 263) large, state-sponsored schools to cut dramatically their undergraduate enrollments. This will never happen. State-supported schools depend on taxpayer support. Is it feasible for these institutions to tell large segments of their populations, "Your child is simply not intelligent enough for an undergraduate education. Moreover, we are going to take the tax dollars that you pay for higher education and spend them on enhancing undergraduate education for students who are more more deserving and smarter than your kids"?
Finally he urges schools to reward professors for excellent teaching. He never mentions that good teaching is very difficult to assess. If you want to reward great teaching, you have to find a way to measure the quality of teaching first. Most schools simply have not figured out a way to do this.
In summary, Beer & Circus is a thought-provoking, but flawed, book.
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