Ernest Kimme: In this culture, Will C. Wood High School needs a stadium

An article has been circulating on the Internet, questioning the role of high school sports. In a nutshell, the author, Amanda Ripley, claims our high schools are failing because of sports. Since Vacaville seems to be getting ready to spend a lot of money building a stadium, we ought to talk about that.

First, I don't agree that our schools are failing. Yes, there are some poor comparisons to other countries, but those studies don't look at who is being tested or the cultural values of the countries. Unlike Korea and Japan, and a few other countries, the United States does not have a culture that respects schooling. We do the opposite, in fact: smart people here are seen as "geeks" and "nerds."

According to this article, published online in The Atlantic magazine, school sports started around 1900, when the U.S. was flooded with immigrants, most of whom were illiterate peasants used to hard work. The monied elites looked at these people, who were strong and athletic, and worried that their children would be "out-competed" by them. (Social Darwinism was very popular then.) So they started sports programs at their private schools, encouraging their boys to play manly, tough sports such as football and rugby.

Public schools, wanting to be like the exclusive prep schools of the wealthy, also adopted sports in their curriculum. Since we have a long history of celebrating feats of strength, it was a short step to rooting for one's school team. The rest is history.

Today, we talk about "school spirit." Communities define their high schools by the strength and success of their school sports teams. This school is a great football school; that school has a great track team. Rarely do we define our schools by their academic prowess: a winning robotics team or a nationally acclaimed academic decathlon team.

Is this right? Should we change it?

At this point, I don't know if it could be changed. Several years ago, the district -- in a cost cutting effort -- cut middle school athletics. During those two years of no athletics, truancy at the middle schools went up and grade point averages declined. Students misbehaved more and suspensions spiked.

Even after they entered high school and sports programs were re-instated, those students caused problems. Graduation rates dipped, and suspensions followed them all the way through school.

Conclusion: Like it or not, sports are important. I agree, we need to value academics more, but sports will always be important. Will C. Wood High School needs a stadium. It's more than just playing football games on their own field, or graduating at their own school. It's about school spirit and, like it or not, school spirit has an impact on everything at the school.

It's time to complete Wood by building a stadium.

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