Football Fever: Or How I Learned To Just Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

It's nearing the second week in December, and football fever is still raging at Simmons High School in Hollandale. This is due to the fact that Simmons High has yet to lose a game during the reguar season or playoffs: we're undefeated baby, yeah! All posturing aside, the joy of gridiron glory has its negative attributes as well, and these have increasingly come to light over past few weeks.

I like the football players I have in my class, and their academic work has not suffered with the prolonging of their athletic season. But the academic work of Simmons High School as a whole has taken a hit because of the team's success. Or rather, students have missed hours of instructional time to engage in the age-old ritual of pep rallies, something supported whole-heartedly by our one-man administration team.

We have had at least seven pep rallies, by my count. They are noisy, and many of them are short-lived, but I can deal with them as a minor annoyance. The real disturbance they cause is twofold. First, they throw off the bell schedules, leaving students and teachers uninformed. Secondly, they create an atmosphere where students do not feel obligated to attempt to learn. Students treat school like a party instead of a center for the acquisition of knowledge. Unfortunately, some teachers enable this mostly-harmful behavior by turning their classrooms into poster-making and pennant design centers.

The high school season ends this Friday with the state championship game in Jackson. Our school will be getting over with at 11:30, so that we can pack onto a bus and make the trek. How much learning will take place on that short day? None. Can I do anything to change that? I can certainly try. But sometimes I think that maybe I short just stop worrying. Just stop worrying and love the bomb.