To the editor:

I applaud the three Bainbridge High School seniors’ thoughtful and articulate letter critiquing the school district’s decision to no longer publish names of honor roll students.

As a 1966 graduate from a Seattle high school, I didn’t excel in sports and was too introverted to wedge into the popular crowd. Academics became a place to find kindred spirits, feed my curiosity, and dream my future. I also understand that pressure for a child to succeed academically can become a parental obsession, similar, I might add, to obsessions about a child’s sports performance.

But this is, as the students articulated in their letter, a parenting issue, and should not relegate honor students into the shadows.

At a time now where there is frighteningly little critical thinking coming out of the White House — and this seemingly applauded by a worrisomely significant portion of the population — it is no time to stop celebrating academic achievement. The Review devotes several pages of every edition to the sports achievements of our high schoolers. Can we not level the playing field just a bit and continue to openly acknowledge the hard work and devotion of students who choose academic excellence, rather than going silent on a subject so critical to the health of our democracy?

JANICE HARRIS

Bainbridge Island