Swami, the school board wants to clarify the eligiblity rules for Waukegan High sports. What should we make of the new rules?
Swami wonders how unmotivated you have to be to get 4 Ds and an F in high school and still get the OK to play sports. Who's dumber: the students or the parents?
Who can propose this with a straight face?
Back when Swami matriculated through the hallowed halls – it was around 210B.C. _ the thought of getting 4 D’s and an F and still being allowed inside my parents’ hut was the issue. They would have grounded my turban for the year. I would have been sent to the military where I would have served in the Carthaginian Wars ... as a hostage or as the buck private who cleaned up after Hannibal's elephants.
Swami has heard all the reasons why students could get those sort of grades and still be considered moderately alert. None of it makes much sense.
Schools must have changed when Swami wasn't looking.
When Swami studied, getting 4 Ds and an F got you a seat on the short chariot. Or in the front row at chiropractic school.
Honestly, how dumb can you be to get those sorts of grades? Swami sez: REAL DUMB. If you show up and not fall asleep, can’t you get at least a C?
Under current policy, students must pass only four classes for the weekly check, then pass five classes for the first semester and six classes for the second semester. If you can figure out those rules, you should be getting better grades. Apparently, some students thought they were eligible to play when they were not.
So they want to change the rules.
Says one school board member: "Maybe he doesn't catch it in the classroom but catches it on the field. If the kid catches a lesson, I don't care where he gets it. Our objective is to teach our children. There are a lot of success stories of those who didn't get much better than a D."
Well, if they got better than a D, they got a C. So let's make that the standard.
As for all the "D' grade success stories in our midst, Swami sez: Oh, yeah? Who?
Let’s find all those students who got routine Ds and are doing just fine. Sir, will you have fries with that?
Swami doubts the job of public high school is to "catch a lesson." It's more, you know, LEARN THINGS that can make you a REAL ADULT in the real world.
Though there may be some who qualify for success with a roster of D grades, there are lots more who are so far behind that getting a minimum wage job would be a magnificent achievement.
Plus, here's an old-timey view. Playing on the school’s football team should be a privilege that is earned; not a right given to someone who can’t do anything else. We don’t support prep sports as a way of keeping kids off the street.
If this the best Waukegan High has to offer its normal students, no wonder parents are fleeing the school.
The premise here, dear Swami, is that if one - only one - in a thousand athletes can tackle or throw or punt his way through high school and college and go on to land a multi-gazillion dollar contract in the pros, it will be worth it.
Think of the local pride! The high school can post a banner claiming it's the "home" of Bobby Bigshoulders, left flank on the Fargo Flatlanders! Bobby can come home and make speeches and be a big draw at homecoming, where his presence will sell a lot of hot dogs to help the Band Boosters. Maybe he'll even support a local children's club or build a new animal shelter. The possible rewards to the community are immeasurable.
Nice idea; however, it does absolutely nothing for the other 999 who fall short of the mark. The only lesson they catch is that they should have paid more attention in class.
Gimme a "C!" (It stands for Correct Change at the drive-thru.)
I think Swami has given an effective overview of the eligibility issue no matter the location of the high school, be it Waukegan, Gurnee, Libertyville, or across the country. Our son was a multisport student athlete in high school. In 9th grade when his progress report came in and he had a number of D's and one F we his parents benched him from track until the grades came up. It only took about two weeks for that to happen. The interesting slant to this story is that his track coach who was also his guidance counselor told us we shouldn't do that. My husband politely told the guidance counselor that we were his parents and that we definitely wanted a student athlete in the school, not just an ahtlete. We also went through a similar scenario during our son's senior year in high school, and he once again brought up his grades before report card time came around. We bought him a car (budget type) and mentioned that he had to have a certain GPA to keep the car during his senior year, and subsequently in college. My husband and I made a rather long drive to retrieve the car one semester, but that was the only time we had to do that while our son was a student athlete in college. Many of his fellow athletes dropped out or became ineligible to play college football, but he played all four years. This young man who was a gifted athlete and earned a 4 year football scholarship is now a teacher and working on his master's degree. I might add that he came in contact with a number of good coaches in feeder teams in the Waukegan Park District and Vernon Hills as well as on the high school and college level, but some of the coaches were also those who really didn't care if their athletes ended up cashiering at a local fast food establishment. Most of those were encountered at the collegiate level. At those points in time our son who had witnessed the vast number of college athletes who had dropped out or became ineligible, made decisions to insure his academic success. From our experience we have learned that it is the parents that must set the standards for their children and make sure they are indeed student athletes whether at the high school or college level. This takes time and effort and yes, enduring the complaints of teenagers or young people who think they are invincible, but the payoff down the road is worth it.