Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Congratulations to the student athletes of Wilkes-Barre Area for their performances this fall season.
However, the success achieved by these students on the field is a poor metaphor for the consolidation of the three city high schools.
Quite the contrary.
The comments of the adults who promoted, and are now responsible for, the reduction of athletic opportunities for the students of the district are nothing less than sadly ironic. Far fewer students had the opportunity to play inter-scholastic sports this year and that number will not increase in future seasons.
The mission of offering interscholastic athletic competition to public high school students is not to enhance won-loss records. The mission of athletics should be to instill the values of teamwork, sportsmanship, discipline, tenacity and the development of skill and fitness. These are values which should be promoted for every student. This fall these opportunities have been reduced by two-thirds by the Wilkes-Barre Area School District.
For those who truly value sports, this is nothing to cheer.
This fundamental disagreement about the mission of public education will no be paper over by bricks and mortar. Students must come first.
Kimberly D. Borland
Wilkes-Barre