Poll Round Up and Results: Which School Activity Is Most Important in Reading?

In our first edition of Patch weekly polls, we asked our readers "" Here's what you had to say: 

The poll received 42 total votes.

'Sports' received 21 votes, getting 50% of total votes. 

'Arts (drama or band)' was the runner-up, with 16 votes, or 38% of total votes.

'Recreational athletics' finished third, receiving 5 votes, or 11% of total votes.

The poll drew in 18 comments on the comment board, and here is a sampling of what was discussed:

'Dave' had an interesting take on the topic and said, "Sorry, but this is like asking "Which is the most important for sustaining life?
1) The sun, 
2) Water, 
3) Viable food source"

'Mary' backed up 'Dave's' feelings about the validity of the poll question and said, "This was a foolish question. For my son it is sports, for my daughter the arts."

'M' then shifted the discussion towards the notion that some people in town hold sports on a pedestal.

The beginning of her comment stated, "Perhaps a related question is 'which activity is worthy of having its outstanding achievers noted with an article on the local paper/website,' because in this town, it appears that only sports are deemed worthy. When I moved here in 2000, the local Reading Advocate still published the names of honor roll students in the paper, but this apparently is not done anymore. I was told this is because listing students who make honor roll by getting all A's and B's inherently violates the privacy of those students not on the honor roll, because their names not being there means that everyone would know that they apparently received at least one C. Hmm, doesn't a listing of the hockey team members mean that 'everyone knows' my child was not skilled enough to make the hockey team? Apparently not." 

In response to 'M's' comments, 'Dave' had this to add, "Great points 'M.' The Chronicle also fails to list the names of Reading residents in the police log. They must not want readers to know who the law-abiding citizens are..."

'SMS' then chimed in with, "The Chronicle has never published a 'true' police blog. The patch is the first to really publish the whole log. I think part of the issue with kids now are that we are so worried that someone feels left out, someone does not have their name in the paper for honor roll. Instead of saying to your child that those things you can achieve if you want to..."

Editor Matt Casey felt like clearing the air about the above comment and said, "To be fair, Reading Patch also does not publish a "complete" log. Each day's log includes a lot of routine matters like people signing in or out for their shifts that we leave out—mostly because we don't think anyone is interested. We also use our discretion on truly mundane calls and those related to medical issues." And the conversation went on from there.