I recently started going to an open-gym for men�s volleyball at my local high school and realized that, although I had played lacrosse for 2 years, I had very little athletic ability. In fact, kinesthetic was my lowest score on my MIDAS test (a test that all freshmen in our high school have to take to determine how they learn best). I did, however, score very high on linguistic and musical. These scores seemed fitting as, since my freshman year, I�ve been in our highest choir and taken advanced courses in all four major subjects. Yet, I�ve never been popular. However, my friends, who are taking few to no advanced classes, have been the most popular people in the class of 2009.

This is a leading trend in our schools. People lose sight of intellectual achievement and look only for athletic achievement. Only recently have you been able to earn letter jackets for intellectual achievements such as choir and band. Some people don�t believe that these should be given, and many schools don�t even offer these options. I think that we should offer these rewards, because people in band and choir do just as much work as those in sports. We practice for hours and hours before we get to perform.

Unlike athletes, however, we only get one chance. One performance to get it right. Every time we take the stage for our performance it�s like walking on to the football field for the state championship. Our actual competitions are very difficult, especially when your director refuses to accept anything under an AA performance (AA is the most difficult level of musical competition).

Our schools have also lost interest in Drama. Sure, schools put on plays (usually three, one for each season) but this has become a standard. Many programs have the talent to take productions to the next level, but lack enthusiasm or, worse, funding. Often the first budget cuts happen in drama, then music, then arts, sports, and finally the electives. With the way our country funds schools I�m surprised more schools don�t have �pay to play� sports programs, let alone a drama guild and choir.

Want to know the communities feelings? Look no further then the local newspaper. They cover high school sports in every copy and feature the �player of the week�, but have you ever seen a section in your newspaper for choir, band, or drama? There�s no musician or actor of the week. Most of our choir concerts have enough left over seats to fill a La-Z-Boy warehouse. At football or basketball games there isn�t a seat in the bleachers. Tell me this. Can you really call this justice? I don�t. How can we lift those with B averages in mediocre class work (at best) on to our shoulders while crushing those with an A average in advanced/AP classes?

Not to say that sports doesn�t have its place in American schools. Some athletes do very well in many advanced classes and are very productive in the classroom. On the other end of the scale, some arts students take comprehensive courses and make below average grades. However, in order to have a balanced and educational environment for everyone we must favor the arts as equally. Some classroom problems are caused by self-esteem. Athletes get the good feeling of making a touchdown or the winning goal in front of all their peers but many performing arts students can�t get that feeling. How can performing arts students feel appreciated and productive if they�re staring at an empty house on stage? It is proven that a student with higher self-esteem will do better than a student who has low self-esteem. Because of this, some arts students might perform lower than athletes in school but may be just as intelligent. How can this be a fair treatment of students?

And these situations extend beyond arts and athletics. Who wants to be known as the captain of the Quiz Bowl team? Students who do activities like Future Problem Solving and Quiz Bowl never see the respect. My Community Problem Solving (division of the Future Problem Solving Program) team received the Grand Champion award, meaning we had the highest scoring packet out of all the categories from all 50 states and 5 other countries. This is the highest award for a CmPS team. When we returned from International Competition in Kentucky with our prize we simply got a mention on the announcements. No �Good job!� from any of our classmates. No sort of recognition from our administration. The most we got was a paper certificate at the end of the year. And people want us to take pride in our work? How can we if our school doesn�t take pride in it?

If we want to see an increase in test scores and government funding then we need to respect all students, not just athletes. If we want the rewards then we need to jump through the hoops. So America, get jumping.