"Abolish high school football!"

Having both seen and read about the dangerous impacts of football on young boys, Raymond A. Schroth speaks out against the sport in an editorial. Watch out for some hard-hitting words in this list.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 11 Unit 3's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: Media in a Democracy, Daily Me, The Newspaper Is Dying, Facebook Photos Sting, Abolish high school football, Facing Consequences, Time to raise the bar, New Michigan Graduation Requirements, Why I Hate Cell Phones, Editorial Cartoons, Let's Hear It for the Cheerleaders, Girl Moved to Tears, In Depth, but Shallowly, Advice to Youth, The War Prayer, Gambling in Schools, How to Poison the Earth
10 words 458 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. concussion
    injury to the brain caused by a blow
    A concussion is a blow to the head that smashes the brain against the skull.
  2. vulnerable
    capable of being wounded or hurt
    Because their brain tissues are less developed, adolescents are most vulnerable.
  3. depression
    mental state characterized by a despondent lack of activity
    If he survives he suffers depression, he can't concentrate, drops out, and/or develops symptoms later in life.
  4. grotesque
    distorted and unnatural in shape or size
    I've felt high school football did more harm than good since I taught high school in the 1960s, since I began getting an inkling of the damage done to young bodies in both high school and college, where linemen are encouraged to "bulk up" to a grotesque 300 pounds in order to do more damage to the enemy--to say nothing of the damage done to their own late adolescent bodies by getting so fat.
  5. distort
    make false by mutilation or addition
    Football, especially in high school, distorts the goals of the so-called educational institution that sponsors it, turns ordinary boys into bedazzled heroes, tells them they're the kings of the corridors, coddled by teachers afraid to flunk them, as their parents try to live out their glamorous dreams over the broken bodies of their children bashing their helmeted heads into one another as thousands cheer.
  6. indictment
    an accusation of wrongdoing
    Buzz Bissinger's 1990 bestselling "Friday Night Lights," a popular book, film, and TV series, was, in the long run, an indictment of the small Texas town with nothing going for it but its high school football team.
  7. irrelevant
    having no bearing on or connection with the subject at issue
    If the town had a library, churches, a theater, a park--if the school had any classes--we never saw them. They were irrelevant.
  8. delusion
    a mistaken or unfounded opinion or idea
    The boys went to high school to play, feeding delusions that they would be noticed by a scout who would get them college scholarships and contracts on pro teams.
  9. bruise
    injure the underlying soft tissue or bone of
    And when they graduate their brains will be enriched, not bruised.
  10. sacrifice
    endure the loss of
    "You've got to sacrifice for the team. The only way I come out is on a stretcher."
Created on Fri Nov 14 14:06:03 EST 2014 (updated Sun Nov 16 00:37:48 EST 2014)

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