DR. WALLACE: I am a 10th-grade high-school student in Garden Grove, Calif. I'm writing to you because I'm told that you were both a coach and an administrator in the Garden Grove School District, and I would like your reply.

I am very concerned with the overemphasis placed on high-school athletics. Personally, I think teachers, coaches and administrators give athletes special treatment. Some athletes are even treated like VIPs. And all of this at the expense of students, such as me, who are short and uncoordinated. I'm smarter than most of the athletes, but I have to study hard to make good grades. The athletes I know rarely study, but they get top grades. I'm not in favor of eliminating school sports, but I feel that athletes should spend as much time studying as they spend at sports practice. I know that sports can provide college scholarships, but for the vast majority of athletes, it's just an ego thing.

My wish is that parents, coaches and administrators remember that sports are classified as "extracurricular" programs, not curricular programs. - Nameless, Garden Grove, Calif.

NAMELESS: You are a very wise young lady and as a former high school basketball coach and high-school administrator, I couldn't agree more. Schools that place the success of their athletic teams above that of academic excellence are doing their students a grave injustice.

Participation in high school sports, for both boys and girls, is a wonderful experience both physically and mentally for the athletes, and winning helps build campus and community pride. But we should all do our best to see that the school system does its job in providing a quality education for all students. Schools owe it to their students to accept them as they are and to take them as far as their intelligence will allow them to go.

GIRL, 19, NOT ALLOWED TO DATE

DR. WALLACE: The advice you gave the 19-year-old girl whose parents would not allow her to date was excellent. Moving from under the family umbrella is the best solution. I suffered a similar situation. I was 19, and my parents wouldn't permit me to go on dates. I had a 10 p.m. curfew. I talked with my parents until I was "blue in the face," but they wouldn't change their minds. Then one day, I told them that I had had enough, and I was going to move in with my best friend and her husband — and I did.

The next day, my father phoned and begged me to return home and promised that I would have the freedom I had always wanted. Rather than running home that instant, I told him it would take me a couple of days to think things over. Three days after he called, I returned home, and my parents have treated me with trust ever since. - Jody, Indianapolis, Ind.

JODY: Some parents find it extremely difficult to release their parental authority that they feel is necessary for the safety and protection of their offspring. Simply stated, your parents were "smothering" you with their love. The shock of having a child move away, many times causes the parents to reevaluate their rules with a promise to temper them with reason should the offspring return.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.