Congratulations to Fieldcrest Elementary South

Congratulations go out to the teachers, students and staff at Fieldcrest Elementary South in Minonk which was named as a blue ribbon recipient for academic achievement from the U.S. Department of Education. This is an extremely rare and significant honor as there were only 20 schools in Illinois and only 288 schools nationwide out of 90,000 schools to receive the blue ribbon. The award is part of the No Child Left Behind program instituted by the federal government under President Bush's first term in office and is given to those schools who have shown dramatic improvement in achievement and test scores.

Much credit must also be given to the parents of the children at Fieldcrest Elementary South as their support and encouragement is also necessary to produce students who excel in academic achievement. We must remember that the main function of our schools is to educate our children which means that this honor is much more important than winning an athletic contest or tournament.

This latest honor follows on the heels of the success of the Fieldcrest Middle School Scholastic Bowl team that went to the State finals in May. Hopefully, these honors will set in motion a winning attitude at Fieldcrest schools in which academic excellence is something worth pursuing and something to be proud of just as it is in athletics.

The timing of the award coincided with the 50th anniversary of the launching of the Sputnik satellite by the Soviet Union in 1957. That event sparked a resurgence in the teaching of science and technology in our schools so as not to be outdone by the Soviets. Today we have a similar crisis in which our country is involved in a global economy where the nation that produces the best students will fare the best. The education of our children is the most important thing we can do to ensure that we retain our standard of living and remain the most powerful country in the world. We need to make sure that academic excellence is not compromised by giving too much emphasis to sports and extra-curricular activities. I for one will be more proud if Fieldcrest is renown for its academic reputation.

The only downside to this story is that the honor bestowed on our community was ignored by the Bloomington Pantagraph. Fieldcrest Elementary South and FoxCreek Elementary in Bloomington were the only downstate schools to receive the blue ribbon award. However, the Pantagraph only reported on FoxCreek and made no mention of Fieldcrest even though Chicago and Peoria area newspapers and websites mentioned Fieldcrest. So the Pantagraph continues its snubbing of good news in our community and, except for sports, reporting only the bad.

We all should be extremely proud to be a member of a community that wins such a distinguished academic award. Go Fieldcrest!

The pantagraph has actually wrote an article about Fieldcrest South getting the Award (which I am very proud of Fieldcrest South - Good work).. Here is a link to the article - http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/10/12/news/doc470f96c829b71056305920.txt

I agree with District Six Mom with the fact that you still have to get good grades. You also have to get passing grades C and above to participate in a High School Extra-curricular activity including sports. I am proud that my daughter does sports and is in the plays and also in a school club and still makes the honor roll. So I want to congratulate all the students that have balanced all of their activities and still made school and their grades an important factor in their lives.

I enjoy reading your editorials and am in total agreement that more emphasis needs to be put on academics over athletics. Most people seem to forget that their education or lack of it is what makes them the person that they are. Being a good athlete may help you get a scholarship to a good college but you still have to make the grades to keep that scholarship. Kudos to Fieldcrest South!

Thanks for another good editorial. One of the reasons I don't spend a dime on the Pantagraph. I am happy to see that we did get recognition by WEEK 25.

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