Pro-Con : No Grade, No Play: A Good Idea? : Yes: ‘We cheat talented young people by failing to hold them liable’ for their studies.
When we let athletes who don’t maintain passing grades don school colors, we send the rest of the student body the message that performance in the classroom is peripheral. Think about what our applause says to student actors who are foundering academically about how much we value their education.
It is not an unreasonable demand to require that athletes and actors maintain a C average. Most students receiving Ds and Fs at my high school are either missing work or missing class. It is not a matter of native wit but rather of application. Many adopt a casual attitude toward attendance: arriving late, leaving early, staying home if it’s rainy, going to the beach if it’s hot. Most have an even more lackadaisical approach to homework. “What, me turn off the TV?”
One way to break through their hostile apathy is to require that they perform in class before they are allowed to perform outside of class. This lever of eligibility can sometimes maneuver reluctant scholars back to their schoolbooks. People argue that only participation in extracurricular activities keeps some kids in school at all; that playing on sports teams or on stage eventually will lead to academic performance. It may. But “eventually” is too vague a notion within an educational framework.
We cheat talented young people by failing to hold them liable for their academic performance. And coaches can be powerful agents for change in student athletes’ lives. More credible, more attuned, they have broader access to their charges than a cranky English teacher like me. Last semester, I had a varsity basketball player in class. His coach contacted me, asking that I advise him if the boy was having trouble or fell behind. When, about halfway through the semester, the young man indulged the habit of arriving late to class, I wasted no time calling parents or filling in procedural paperwork. I called his coach. End of the tardy problem. The boy earned an A minus in the class.
We must ensure that the mutual contract of education--we teach, they learn--is fulfilled if students are to participate in extracurricular activities. If this means that a subsidiary contract with a team, with a cast, with an orchestra cannot be fulfilled, so be it.
