We will be the first to admit that we — both at this newspaper and as a society — tend to glorify, to a greater extent than perhaps we should, the exploits of athletes at all levels of competition.
Just a few years ago we attended a “graduation†ceremony for a fifth-grade class (who were moving on to their middle school) at which each girl and boy presented a Power Point describing themselves and their future aspirations.
The girls chose traditional career choices that one would expect from typical 11-year-olds– veterinarians, nurses, doctors, dolphin trainers, teachers, etc.
The boys on the other hand — and this is no exaggeration — almost without exception (other than a handful of the 60 boys who came to the stage) chose the following career paths: professional hockey player, baseball player, football player, lacrosse player, and a snowboarder.
There were a couple of doctors, but almost every boy said he wanted to be a professional athlete of some sort or another.
It made us wonder what message we as a society have been sending to our young people these days — and as we thought about it, we were not pleased with our answer.
So this is a roundabout way of saying that we have been delighted and proud to feature on the front page of the Sun-Transcript the past few weeks the exploits of the Winthrop High Drama Society, which has won the championship at the State Drama Festival for the second year in a row under the tutelage of their teacher and advisor, Karen Calinda.
For a small school such as ours to win such a prestigious event is nothing less than amazing. Readers of the articles the past two weeks had to be impressed not only with the talent of our students, but also with the incredible teamwork and dedication that goes into a theatrical production, both on and off the stage, that are the necessary ingredients to putting together a state championship effort.
We know we join with all of our readers in offering our congratulations to Ms. Calinda and her Drama Society students and thanking them for bringing another measure of Viking Pride to our community.