Dear Principal,

I strongly believe that you are making a big mistake by making the students have at least a grade B average to play in sports. If you have not noticed, there are those kids in school who are working very hard to attain the grade score that they are at now. Then there are those of us who spend so much time with sports, that we do not have time to be the best we can be in school. Of course, I realize that this is a stupid argument to make against you, saying that because of sports, students are failing. Then again you could see it my way. We are giving it everything we have to make sure that you attain a school championship. You see, those most passionate amongst us are the ones that aren't doing so well. They are trying, but they have dedicated so much time to this game that we cannot hope to achieve anything out of the ordinary in school. I hope that we can come to an agreement. Say, they must take a test of some sort to make sure that it is possible for them to actually achieve the level of scholarly intelligence that this school is now requiring. We are trying everything that we can to do well in school, but how can we ever hope to achieve our goals if we have so much constant pressure on us? We could get kicked off the team if our grades aren't good enough, but if we don't practice we might not be good enough for the team anyway!

You see, we are trying everything to stay on this team. We are either spending too much time on our homework and not practicing, or to much time practicing and not on our homework! I do not think that you should change the school policy because things are pretty great the way they are now. Everybody is getting along, nobody is fighting. The kids were fine with maintaining a grade C average. They had no problem with that. That is because at this age, when they are juggling relationships, body odor, sports, and everything else that has to do with adolescence, trying to get good grades could really stress them out. In all sincerity, it is true that they don't need to have so many things to get worked up about. They don't specifically need all the other things, but they don't care. For some, sports is all they care about. It is what keeps them alive. It's what makes them want to come to school, the fact that they will be able to play sports after it will be over. Some of these kids didn't come from great families. Some may be suicidal. Some just are not capable of getting a grade B average. Nothing was wrong with the old policy.

Now back to something that I mentioned earlier. I said something about a test. This test can be a one time thing, or you can have us take it once a semester. Whatever makes you feel better. I realize that there are state standards and such, but some kids just don't meet those standards. They try very hard to, but they can't. If you were to change the policy, I suggest making a test that covers all the subjects. Make it to see if these kids are capable of actually doing the work. Give these kids a fair chance. If you just change the school policy without anybody's consent or making it very unfair to people, people will start to get mad. They will not be happy with the decision that you made. I suppose that I have no power over your decision, but I hope that you can see things from my point of view. At least just to analyze it. I know that maybe we aren't matching up to the standards and that's why you're planning on changing the school policy, but you have to realize that some of these kids just can't make it. We try very hard. Like I said at the beginning, some of us spend more time training than with schoolwork. Others of us more time with schoolwork than training. If we don't get a fair shot at this, then we'll never succeed.