Haverford is a school, not an athletic training facility. We’re not IMG Academy, and our mission statement does not emphasize physical activity.
Yet, the week of April 28, I missed part (or all, in one case) of five classes. One day, I left school at 1:30. Another, I was already on the tennis court for a 3:45 home match before last period had even ended.
But I do contest athletics’ preeminence over the school day.
I’ve been complaining about missing class for four years, and not because I’m annoyed that I play a sport. I complained when I missed a day in the Biotech lab because my travel-study to Italy was leaving a day early. I complained when I missed a Spanish class to play capture-the-flag with middle schoolers. As great as the reasons for missing class may be, school is sacred to me.
I don’t dispute the value that the school places on athletics. I believe in our sports requirement; after all, I am a starter on a team that has won the Inter-Ac championship each year that I have been in high school, and for ten years before that.
But I do contest athletics’ preeminence over the school day.
Once I’ve missed a class—or two, or three, or four, or five, as the case was during the week of April 28—my days grow longer. I’m left struggling to find time to meet with teachers and catch up on work. My ASBs are booked with meetings, I don’t share a free block with most of my teachers, and no, I can’t meet tomorrow after school, because I’ll be dismissed at 2:30 then, as well.
So I fall behind. I’m left piecing together linear algebra by myself. My lab partner completes a gel electrophoresis process without my support, and I have to hope that I understand the pictures that I’m sent of the results—it’s not like I can ask a teacher for help at 11:15 p.m., when I’m sitting down after completing my normal homework to start up on my catch-up work.
And for what? So that I could play an out-of-league match in Unionville, PA? So that I could warm up on-court for over half an hour?
What was the point of teaching if half the class would need a make-up lecture, or their perspectives would be absent from the discussion?
As much as I am disturbed by the personal consequences that I suffer from early dismissals, I’m not just thinking about myself.
The week of April 28, my Advanced Topics in Math class—the highest level math the school offers—was left with less than half the class after numerous last-period athletic early dismissals. The same week, my Latin V* class—during the final time we would meet during last period before the Sixth Formers left—was left with about four students. The classes could barely go on.
What was the point of teaching if half the class would need a make-up lecture, or their perspectives would be absent from the discussion?
My teachers, without whom there would be no school for these teams to represent, were kneecapped. The week of April 28th showed me, once and for all, that my school was under the thrall and had been upended by an athletic program with more power than the academic institution that it serves.
It’s time for Haverford to set its priorities straight. No league, team, or coach should have the power to override the classroom education for which we enroll.
We’re a school first.
