From: DRAGONFLY           
To: RUFUS               
Subject: Model 100      
Date & Time: 02/12/91 21:41:15
Message Number 12139

   Ha! If schools were really meant for education, do you think they'd
pay the teachers something more than minimum-sustinence (sp?) wages?
If schools were really for education, do you think they'd spend more
money on say... computer equipment than athletic equipment? Really, now.
    
   Seriously, sports has a place in the school system, of course. But
I notice that newspapers all over the state were reporting on the best
high-school athlete -- and which college he was going to. I've never
once seen a report about the best student in the state. 
   Our society places sports on a pedestal: you can become a SOMEBODY
if you're good at sports. What no one says: it's ten thousand times
more difficult to become a somebody through sports than it is to 
become somebody through education.
   What effect will it have on future students? Learning will become
harder, so many students won't put out the effort. The athletes will
still be praised, the academics thrown in a corner. And the rift will
widen.
             /Dragonfly/