Clicky Link: State Board of Education Approves Plan to Give High School Athletes Double Credit

It would be inaccurate to say that I am speechless right now. No, what I am is completely livid. Absolutely furious. Fucking appalled works too.

"In a state where football is king, students who pass, kick and tackle will soon be able to get more credit toward high school graduation."

I do not condescend towards HS sports necessarily. I do not view them as pointless, for there is always something to be had in physical activity, team exercises and something to work towards. However, in this case, high school sports are completely valueless in comparison to a genuine and actual education.

What is sport? Is sport education? No. Sport is entertainment. Sport is recreation. Sport is leisure. Sport is, regardless of all the hard work that may be involved with it physically, not worthy of extra credits towards graduating high school. Students who put their best foot forward and do what they can, be they the students who struggle and barely make it, but make it nonetheless, or the students who excel and achieve amazing results - are these not the product of true education? Are these not the people who should be rewarded with what they have worked so hard to earn? And do we not mock their efforts, devalue them, cheapen them by granting these teen athletes more than they rightfully deserve?

We do.

There is no excuse for the mockery of education. My view on how students are educated - in this country at large, let alone this state itself - is black, for firsthand and as a bystander have I witnessed ineffectual and sometimes laughable attempts at "teaching". I have been the subject of these lessons and of these teachers, with lacklustre lectures and no real spirit for what they do. I admit to having turned the educational system aside for my own good, after being repeatedly shortchanged and unassisted. I have a very real idea of what it is like to have teachers that do not care about whether you pass or fail, or whether you truly understand the lesson, because I had many of those teachers during my time in the educational system.

In spite of that, or perhaps because of it, I am outraged at the blatant disregard for the hardworking students who manage to make it to the stage. Every credit counts, and the credits you need are only going up. The year I left high school for good, they raised the credit requirement for incoming freshmen. I remember thinking how difficult it had been for me, worrying about credits for classes that seemed so difficult, with teachers who just did not seem cut out for the job. Where I had questions, they had only impatience. Now, those incoming students face that tenfold.

What they are going to hear now is that every athlete in the school who bothers to keep up the sport is going to be given still more consideration than they are. Not only will they win games, be given attention, special treatment, and pep rallies, but they will be given a helping hand towards their credits. And for what? For academic achievements? For mental efforts applied? For NOTHING. For FREE. Because they like to play a team sport, they will be rewarded - and why?

"Supporters said the move would keep kids in school and spur them to do well in academic courses."

Certainly not! In order to play the sport for the school in the first place, there is an average requirement of grades. They need not be spectacular, but there is a standard. This is not a new concept. If playing the sport is not enough incentive, then they will not play the sport. It's as simple as that. But now we need to reward them again? To give them yet more, to keep them playing? Obviously the true priorities of the Texas State Board of Education have been revealed: keep our boys and girls playing their little games. Good god, don't let that pigskin touch the supply cabinet. Keep them playing. Get them into college. Give us another year of game after game, and don't ever let that be endangered.

Despite it not being my home state, and despite many of its inhabitants and practices having offended me to varying degrees over the years, I have never before been so incensed by the state of Texas. Never before have I been truly disgusted by it. I am not native, but I am thoroughly ashamed of this display.

I am sure that the students in schools, as they hear of this new development, will have their own reactions to give when they find that the Board of Education has fully embraced the petty.