rticle in the sports section of the Thursday Southern Illinoisan that makes me question priorities in an educational environment. The writer offered suggestions to increase attendance and school spirit at high school and college sports events. One of these suggestions, Cool for School, is as follows: Teachers should start offering extra credit to students who attend athletic events. It doesn’t have to be a lot of extra credit or for every home game, but five points can be the difference between a B and a C on report cards….School spirit results from pride in one’s school and community. Motivating attendance at sports events by giving bonus points in academic work is as ridiculous as rewarding good grades with money. Neither increases spirit nor the desire to learn. This nonsensical concept would contribute to the dumbing down of educational standards which already are quite low. Our immigrant ancestors learned to speak the real English language, not the mumbo jumbo version spoken by most collegiate and professional athletes today.
The writer of the article also indicates he had several SIU professors offer attendance at sports ev
ents as an option for extra credit. Did students turn in ticket stubs instead of assignments? I wonder if those professors also used stars and smile stickers on 
theses and dissertations! SIU’s emphasis on sports, particularly football and basketball, is well known. Chris Lowery, the 37 year old basketball coach, is probably the highest paid employee of the university with his seven year contract and $750,000.00 annual salary. The basketball Dawgs, however, are currently in second last place in the Missouri Valley Conference! SIU is reno
vating the basketball Arena and building a new football stadium at a cost of almost $100,000,000.00 (supposedly from private funds) but may not have mo
ney available to make payroll in several months. I am not against sports, but what is wrong with this picture? In the future, will cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude honors at SIU be based on sports attendance rather than academic success?
Todays blog is so accurate you should consider submitting it to the newspaper in response to the article mentioned. If you did I think it would evoke further comments from the silent majority of people in this country who feel exactly the same way.
ReplyDeleteThey must already award extra credits to members of the team based on minutes played in a game. For most this is how they would academically qualify. I have yet to hear of an employer when reviewing a resume or college transcript look if the applicant attended college sporting events.
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