The Big Business of Holding Back Eighth-Graders

遏制八年级学生的商业大潮

The Journal.

2026-06-19

23 分钟
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Holding students back in school once came with a negative connotation. But with college athletes now able to earn endorsement deals, they are preparing younger and younger to be recruited and potentially get paid. WSJ's Harriet Ryan reports on the rise of special middle schools where students hold themselves back on purpose so they can grow, develop and mature before high school. Ryan Knutson hosts.   Further Listening: - Inside the Black Market for High School Football Players- NCAA President on a New Era for College Sports - How Gamblers Are Rigging College Basketball Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  • This is the sound of finals at a middle school in Southern California.

  • And at this school, their finals aren't just on paper.

  • They're also in the gym.

  • They're being tested for their speed, their strength.

  • Here, they're doing pull-ups.

  • This middle school is called the togethership.

  • And as you may have guessed, it isn't a typical school.

  • It's a private school where a major part of the curriculum is athletics.

  • There are classes like weightlifting and speed training.

  • And they also have classes for specific sports, like the football players

  • who work on running routes and throwing mechanics.

  • Ready to go.

  • Yeah, run routes, routes on air.

  • And the soccer players trying to score goals on each other.

  • Good finish.

  • Yeah, go for it.

  • The basketball students practicing their layups.

  • School is founded by a man named Devin Quinn.

  • Each day they have four classes, two academic, two athletic, but they alternate.

  • They'll have, so like all these kids that are in academic class right now,