jon@dmcityview.com

You have to pass to play

This is for the dumb kid in row two, his dumb parents, his coach who could not care less about him beyond the season and his athletic director who somehow thinks that it's unfair that he has to actually pass his classes in order to play sports. First, wake his sorry ass up. This is only third period. Kid, wipe the drool off your chin, I have something important to tell you. Ready? OK. Here it is: you are not turning pro - ever - and if you want to be more than a human stain, you'll forget about athletics if you aren't making the grade. The world needs ditch diggers, too, but you don't want to be one of them. As for the rest of you, think about the message you're sending to students, to your children, when you maintain that it's OK to flunk a class or two and still play sports.

You are encouraging losers to grow up to be bigger losers.

Oh, sure, I've heard of all the so-called "consequences" of setting the bar so high, of being so strict, and not one of them holds water. Say the opponents of the proposed rule that would bench high school athletes for four weeks if they failed one or more classes:

"Students would skip academically challenging courses." Right, because it's the stupid kids who can't decide between AP biology and basket weaving. People, the dumb ones aren't flunking hard classes, they're flunking the basics.

"Dropout rates would increase." Well, if they are only at school for sports then why delay the inevitable?

"School attendance would decline." Let the teachers teach the kids who want to learn.

"Juvenile crime would increase." Basketball practice does not make perfect. A bad kid is a bad kid. Ask any teacher. They can point them out in kindergarten.

"Minorities and immigrants would be more adversely affected than other students." Regarding minorities: If you want to be treated equally, don't clamor on about how unfair everything is; rise to the occasion, crack the books. Believe me, other minorities have done it. Look at it this way; if you do the work, you'll be able to play football instead of having to play the race card. And as for the immigrants: You came here to make a better life for yourselves, and that isn't going to happen without school. You don't know the language? Study it. Comprende? We have enough idiots here. So don't waste our time by wasting yours. You can kick soccer balls back in the old country.

In short, the coddling needs to stop. It's not OK to be stupid and, without question, it is not OK to foster it. I accept ignorance in its everyday form. Some people are just built that way. But being stupid by choice - athletics over academics - is just not acceptable because, eventually, the stupid people become a problem that society has to deal with collectively.

No one is asking for perfection here, all they want is a little effort, a passing grade, a D-minus. Hell, just show up and you get a D-minus. Stupid parents, point your stupid children toward homeroom, get their lazy asses in their seats for roll call and they can shoot hoops until they're blue in the face. Honest to God, is our society so backward that we can't communally wrap our arms around this?

Judson Ashley, the superintendent of the Stanton School District, said in an interview with The Des Moines Register last week that the state demanding students pass classes in order to play sports "stomps all over local control and is a slap in the face to the dedicated board members and educators all over the state of Iowa." Is he kidding? Local control? It's more like out of control. And calling any educator "dedicated" who tolerates failure in the classroom is laughable.

Being involved in sports and other extracurricular activities should never be seen as anything other than a privilege for kids who pass their classes - all their classes. Life is hard and it gets much harder when you take learning out of the equation. And if a kid is failing then it is the responsibility of educators like Ashley to eliminate distractions like sports until that kid gets his act together. And if educators like Ashley don't want to do it, then the state - this one we live in with its so-called foundation in education - needs to step in and do it for him. We simply cannot tell kids it is all right to be failures. It's that simple. And allowing the ones who are flunking to play sports does exactly that.

Diplomas from the school of hard knocks are for people who have not the desire to get one anywhere else. Don't give these kids excuses, don't pat them on the back and say "job well done" when it isn't, and don't just toss them a basketball or football and cross your fingers. Give these kids a leg up by demanding they actually try. Give them an opportunity at being productive citizens by demonstrating that there are consequences for not making an effort. Because in the end, a losing season is a lot easier to take than a whole life of it. CV

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