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Athletes and education
The reaction of fans across the state was one of outrage. "Why in the world," the fans asked, "do they expect our players to go to class to learn about the Punic Wars the week before the big game? If they have to go to class, let 'em go during basketball season." If you witnessed the carnage in Knoxville last weekend, when my beloved Georgia Bulldogs won the opening coin toss and then proceeded to lose everything else, including an arm, a couple of legs and more than a few teeth, you might suggest that our players should spend their time learning how to run a pass pattern and, I don't know, maybe how to tackle. For the record, I'm a proud college graduate who doesn't remember much about the Punic Wars myself, even though I know it was taught. I don't even recall why the Punics were mad at each other, much less why they went to war. But make no mistake, Georgia and Georgia Tech should be ashamed of their graduation rates for athletes. At Georgia, for instance, only 41 percent of football players between 2000 and 2006 received degrees. This is particularly disturbing since just six years ago, the graduate rate for student-athletes was 70 percent, five points higher than the rate for all students. No one is a bigger fan of college sports than I am. And no one wants Georgia to win more than I do. But we've lost perspective when getting beat by Tennessee makes us madder than failing to educate our players. What's more, such talk perpetuates the stereotype of the dumb jock. The problem isn't that these athletes aren't smart. It's that they have been told that, school work be damned, they could get by on athletic ability alone. Some can. Most can't. I'm not sure a lot of scholarship athletes appreciate what they have, and what they are being given. Monetarily, a full scholarship to Georgia amounts to around $65,000 or so. But no price tag can be placed on the doors that degree will open once the football days are over. Not long after I came to Gainesville last year, I was asked to join the Gainesville State College Board of Trustees. One of our main responsibilities is to raise money for scholarships for deserving students, many of whom at GSC are the first in their families to attend college. It's an incredible experience to meet some of these students. Quite a few of them are non-traditional students. They have families. They have jobs. But they understand the importance of education and of getting that degree. They are incredibly grateful, some to the point of tears, for the scholarships they are given, for without them, their dreams of a college education would be just that. I don't always sense that appreciation from college athletes, and it's a shame. It's not all their fault, though. We all shoulder some of the blame. Parents don't push hard enough. Teachers and principals don't expect enough. And then there are the fans. Fans don't care if the players are as dumb as a box of rocks as long as the team wins. Just win, baby. It was the late, great Erk Russell who explained it thusly: "No one ever held a pep rally for a library." And he's right. We should be enthusiastic about sports.We should put on our school colors and cheer for the team. We should expect them to win consistently. But we should also expect the athletes to take advantage of what they have been given. We should expect them to go to class and making passing grades and graduate. That's doesn't mean they should make a 4.0. Very few students graduate with a 4.0. Just graduate, baby. And what the rest of us ought to do is to start teaching young athletes - and I mean even athletes in middle school and younger - is that you can be a stud athlete and a smart student. The two aren't mutually exclusive. Unfortunately, the graduation rates at Georgia and Georgia Tech show we have a ways to go.
Mitch Clarke is executive editor of The Times in Gainesville, Ga. He can be reached at mclarke@ gainesvilletimes.com.
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