Whiner's of New Rule

To all those complaining about new Iowa State Board of Education rule:

I feel bad that people think this is unfair to athletes. Some are saying that athletes are held to a higher standard or that they will simply drop out now if they fail a class or that they may even take less challenging classes as to ensure that they don’t fail. With all due respect, as a former 4 year high-school athlete, they should be held to a higher standard. As an athlete you have the PRIVLAGE, not the right to play sports and represent your school, so I think this claim of not being held to a higher standard is laughable. Even more laughable is the heightened concern for student-athletes to fail a class. Again, with all due respect, high-school is not that hard, no matter where you attend it. I graduated from an Iowa school with the highest of standards in education. No matter how hard the class is you have to work hard to fail a class. There is simply no excuse for failing. If you think the class is exceptionally challenging, your choice should not be to drop out of school, it should be to seek help outside of class. I am fully in support of the new eligibility rules set forth by the Iowa State Board of Education. I’m tired of watching “student”-athletes that are not fulfilling the first part, play ahead of less talented student-athletes that work hard on AND off the field. If athletics is an athlete’s only route to college then this new rule should motivate them to work even harder in the classroom to ensure they have that shot at college. Some people need to wake up and realize that failing a class is a big deal and if a student-athlete doesn’t have the motivation to work hard in the classroom, then they have lost their right to work on the field.