Texas Must Push Academics in Schools

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Students in school these days have a hard choice to make while they are there: academics or activism? But should this even be a question that they have to deal with?!?

It used to be that any activism a student chose to pursue was extracurricular - happening outside the normal routine of school. But that's not the case any more.

The National Education Association published an article in March 2021 about how student activism in and out of school is on the rise.

There are five types of activism: protests, boycotts, strikes, petitions, and social media campaigns.

But the very purpose of school is to educate and prepare a young man or woman for life as an adult, and those five activities do none of that.

There is increasing pressure within the school to push our kids into activism, and some of it comes directly from the school staff and the school board.

Let's be honest: you can't focus on two things at once. If the focus isn't on academics, then any activism will only draw time away from true education.

In a well-resourced study published in The Review of Higher Education, student activists were to found to suffer from isolation by grouping the world into different factions. They had a decrease in academic performance and learning. Exhaustion, burnout, and fatigue were common among student activists.

Learning has its own reward: increased job prospects, an improved college experience, a wider social network. That's why we send them to school. We believe that education and school will improve their future.

Let's give our students the privilege of just being a student. Let's fight any pressure they feel of being pushed into activism.

Academics must come first. It's clearly what is best for our students. The Texas School Board Association and every community school board must be directed to champion academics and not activism, or our children will suffer.