Don’t Water Down the Rules

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, students must maintain a C average with no failures in any subject to qualify for extracurricular activities, including varsity sports. If youngsters want to play, they must pass. The C average rule is simple and sound.

The policy, which applies to students in the fourth through 12th grades, keeps the emphasis at school on education. It persuades budding actresses or talented athletes to study. And the rule also teaches youngsters to put first things first and to meet certain requirements to succeed. These are lessons best learned early in life.

Although the C average rule has proved its value, the school board is scheduled today to take up a proposal to relax the requirement. The motion, by board member Julie Korenstein, would allow youngsters to fail one subject and still participate in the dramatic arts or other activities, cutting the standard to match state rules. Why make it more acceptable to fail?

Under the proposed rule, a student could fail English or math, and use an A in a nonacademic class like physical education to balance out a C average. Korenstein, and the parents who support her, reason that a youngster shouldn’t be penalized for one failure. A failure shouldn’t warrant punishment, but it should prompt a student to spend extra time on the subject. Giving up drama or drill team would not only get a student’s attention, but also clear time for additional study.

Parents of young athletes also may be inclined to oppose the prohibition against a single F. Would they be as quick to trade off study time for practice time if they knew the odds? The numbers are against high school athletes who want to play professional ball. Only one out of every 1,000 high school senior and junior varsity athletes makes it to the pros, according to Arthur Ashe, the former tennis champion. The odds are much better that youngsters will need to make the grade with books, not balls.

The Los Angeles Board of Education, led by board member Rita Walters, laid down the law seven years ago. The board should reject any attempt to water down the pass-to-play-rule. Students--urged on by their parents and teachers--need every encouragement to pass every class, and achieve a minimum academic standard, a C average.