Upon Thinking About School Change...

Posted by Vulnadia on Sep 29, 2009 at 08:02 AM The President is considering many changes to the school system nationwide that would affect all of us. This includes a lengthening of the school day possibility which I have been reflecting a lot on lately. My child trains. He is a competitive fencer. He has very high aspirations and goals with that. BUT that being said, academics will not be allowed to suffer !!! He is NOT a football jock, he is doing this so he can have the opportunity to get in to and actually go to a super good school on scholarship. He needs to be able to get that degree in whatever he wants and still be able to fall back on coaching/teaching in his old age like his own maestro. This is his back-up if he doesn't do well in whatever he decides to try for career wise. Rather he could retire and know he can open up his own business and live to be a ripe old age being happy doing something he loves. That way we could be sure that there isn't any chance of ending up as Walmart greeter to fall-back for him at age 80. This is a very real possibility for any of our kids if we aren't careful with social security the way it is and this is while we watch everything else going to the dogs quite literally! That being said, I know we've only been in highschool since August, but even so, i'm trying to get my kid into the practice and habit of studying. He has to keep a 2.5 just to stay in this school to begin with. That is the lowest allowable gpa!!!! Now on to MY gpa requirements which are higher!!! His homework isn't all worksheets and bubble testing. It requires the use and application of materials gathered from libraries and online, then applied to a give topic. This is in more than just one class! When will he have time to do these things if the school day lengthens? How do we instill a sense of family if he is at school during bankers hours? The babies eat at 5 and are in bed by 630 max each day. Sure they are growing up, but it wont change that much by the time he leaves for college in 3 years!!! When does he study, get to be a big brother, have household responsibilities to manage (it may sound archaic, but although we are not in the agriculture biz and have to use our kids to help work ye old homestead farm anymore) we still have chores and duties around the house for him to do which teach him responibility and how to function as an adult eventually! So I ask you, when will the kids get to be kids??? I LOVE arts in the schools, in fact I think it's the funding that needs to be replaced and reinstituted. Self expression is very important for any mental well-being in the person, but sadly it's the first cut, the least understood and felt to be erroneous and unnecessary by the government for the most part. Heck, most are hard pressed to learn a foreign language in some schools. So really, is this daycare? Or is this just another funding/test score purpose plot?? If we want to keep up with the rest of the world scholastically, the difference is in the material being taught and our methods of teaching. Then you have to look at the discipline on the student's part or the possible lack therof. This is also lacking in our nation as a whole. Really we call it apathy. If the adults lack discipline, how do we expect our kids to act any better? I refer to discipline in the sense of people being able to get up out of bed in the morning on time, the discipline to decide to study over watching tv or eat veggies vs fast food. American apathy has to be solved, but i'm not sure this is the way!!!