Sports are a privilege

Dear Editor,

It saddens me that McCook School Board is prioritizing low requirements to play sports over raising academic standards.

When I was in school, we had this policy in effect. Every Friday, down lists came out and some athletes had to work extra hard to make sure they were able to play in the next game. I remember a couple of times that students weren't allowed to play because their grades weren't up, but they didn't quit school because of it. As a matter of fact, in my four years of high school, no one dropped out of school because they were on the down list.

In the Gazette's editorial, it stated "sometimes a little success in athletics is enough to inspire a struggling student to stick it out in school long enough to earn a diploma."

Exactly how is a student supposed to get a diploma if he can't pass his classes? If a student is failing in two or more classes, then they need to spend more time on their education rather than playing sports, anyway. Their education is what is going to get them through life, not their memories of going to State Football.

McCook schools are spending thousands of dollars on a new computer system that will allow parents to get on the Internet and see students' assignments and grades for the day, therefore it will not be any extra work to generate a down list from those grades.

I can't imagine a teacher that is not willing to spend a couple of minutes a week to make sure that their students are passing.

Most importantly, playing sports in school is a privilege. It is not the reason we are sending our kids to school everyday. We are supposed to be sending our kids to school to receive an education for their future.

Sticking with the state's minimum educational requirements is not going to bring more families to McCook. As a school district, why would you not want to give the younger generation a great education rather than a minimal education?

The McCook School Board needs to look around at the area schools and ask themselves why their dropout rate and transfer rate is so much higher.

Try asking former students who have transferred from McCook to nearby schools why they did it and what could be changed. I think you'd be surprised -- and enlightened -- by the answers you receive.

Michelle Townsend,

via e-mail