By Orinorious
1. liked or admired by many people or by a specified group.
Add another piece to that definition.
2. A varsity athlete in a popular high school sport, such as football or basketball.
There we go.
It seems wherever you go nowadays, you are bombarded with talk about sports and athletes. In the real world, athletes are put on pedestals (right next to actors and actresses), and worshiped as if they were gods. It turns out that high school isn�t immune from this either. Student athletes seem to get all of the recognition throughout the school. Think about it, in Post Falls High School alone, athletes are eligible to win the following:
1. Athlete of the week award
2. Bulletin Recognition (Their name, accomplishment, and congratulations read to the school during the morning announcements)
3. Athletic letters, most of which are easy to obtain
4. Scholar-athlete award
Don�t get me wrong, I love sports. I happen to participate in school athletics as well, and have lettered in them. I�m not jealous and cynical, but I am trying to make a point, and my point is this. School, first and foremost, is supposed to be about getting an education to prepare us for later in life. Yet, it seems that we are promoting the advancement of athletic accomplishment, and not the development of something that will actually get one places in life.
It�s not just the students though, that are putting this emphasis on sports; it�s the teachers, the administration, and even more sadly, today�s society in general. Some teachers in the school give out extra-credit to those who attend a sporting event. The administration promotes the accomplishments of athletes with plaques and recognition, which I believe is great, but shouldn�t the actual scholars get some too? I understand that participating in athletics is difficult, especially since you are trying to juggle school and other things along with it. These varsity athletes deserve every award that they earn; but what I don�t understand is why the scholars in the school comparatively get next to nothing, why junior varsity athletes don�t have a chance to obtain the same awards, and why people who participate in other extra-curricular activities, such as band and choir, don�t get special awards from the school.
Think about this; students who pull a 4.0 gpa, something that is extremely difficult to do, receive an academic letter, and�that�s it. That�s all they get, and coming from experience, it is much easier to get an athletic letter than an academic one. These students put in the extra effort studying and doing their homework and all they get to show for it is a piece of metal at the end of the school year. In the meantime, varsity athletes only have to pull a 3.5 to receive a scholar athlete award, which, incidentally, is awarded after every sport, not after a whole year of school.
I understand why this award is given; athletics take up a lot of time, and the fact that they are able to do both sports and school well is commendable. However, by that logic, shouldn�t junior varsity athletes and fine arts members qualify for the scholar athlete award? They put in just as much time and effort, if not more, than the varsity athletes. Shouldn�t they be allowed to reap the benefits too? Yet, academics have little roles it seems in our school. There is no "scholar of the month" award. They don't get recognized over the bulletin if somebody gets a 4.0 or gets an "A" on a test. I find it sad that we are hoisting the quarterback on our shoulders and calling him a hero, a winner, an inspiration, when you have numerous, underapreciated kids with no athletic ability who somehow still pull a 4.0 gpa while competing in other activities that take more skill than most sports, such as drama, choir, or band. I understand that we, the students, care more about the athletes than the witty �nerd� who sits in the front row, but I am frankly disappointed that our teachers and administration seem to feel the same way.