School spirit should extend well beyond the athletic fields; cheers of “go team” resonate just as well in the classroom.

Danville, Boyle and the surrounding schools just finished their first full week back, even though some athletic teams have been competing for a couple of weeks.

As the excitement builds, a reader recently reminded me that we should not forget about academic achievements.

And she is absolutely right.

Many of us love sports. The staff at The Advocate-Messenger certainly feels it is important to recognize our student athletes. This is evidenced by the hard work by sports editor Derek Brightwell to showcase all the fall high-school sports teams in our coverage area.

But the reader’s point was relevant.

As a society we celebrate our athletes and celebrities, while often marginalizing academic accomplishments and our educators. We cannot change the world, but we can certainly do our part to level the playing field — pun intended — right here in central Kentucky.

As citizens we can all play a role by learning more about the great things going on in our schools and congratulating students for a job well done. It starts with asking questions and being engaged.

As a newspaper, we certainly want to do our part. If you have a child or grandchild that does something extraordinary, let us know about it. If you are a teacher who has a class that is going above and beyond, help us sing their praises.

I honestly believe it is possible to celebrate all our students.

So, let’s show our school spirit under the Friday night lights this week and on the other fields of competition, but let’s also do a better job of cheering on our classroom stars, too.

Michael Caldwell is publisher of The Advocate-Messenger and Danville Living magazine. He can be reached at (859) 469-6400 or by email at mike.caldwell@centralkynews.com.