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Food For Thought

I have to say that as the years go by I become more and more disappointed in the public school system. As the economy is falling, and the government is budgeting less and less to their school districts does it make sense to purchase a $3.7 million building that’s not even finished? Especially when they already have a district office to begin with and with no intention of selling that building to pay for the new one. This is just one of a string of decisions that the school board in our district has been making and it makes you wonder what kind of people are they electing to this body of people in the first place.

I graduated from high school in 2004 and back then I didn’t see anything wrong with what was happening in the district, I was too preoccupied with high school boys, classes, and work but since then I’ve only been disappointed. When I moved with my family to California in 2005, surprised would be an understatement. Schools in California, at least the public schools, don’t have any consequences for missing days. There are kids out there who go to school 2 or 3 days a week and spend the others at the beach, or at the amusement parks. No wonder the kids out there aren’t doing well in college if they’re even going at all.

Don’t even get me started on the dress code out there; they’ve banned flip-flops, pajama pants, professional football memorabilia, just to name a few. The flip-flops because they’re dangerous, you could drop something on your foot. Heaven forbid anyone’s toes not be protected; the pajama pants are banned for who knows, and certain football memorabilia because it promotes gang activity. I think its bullshit.

Another thing that irritated me while we were out there was that the public schools spend almost two straight months doing standardized testing; why don’t they teach their students something instead of testing them for two months every year. If you think about it the students that go to these schools are losing 26 months worth of education by the time they graduate, that’s over two years that they could be spending learning a new subject or understanding an old one.

Now in 2006 we moved back here to Minnesota and I’m starting to wonder if the school districts here are starting to follow in California’s footsteps. At the start of the 2006-2007 school year the district announced that they were changing the lunch menus, taking out the pop machines and the candy vending machines and replacing them with water machines. They told the parents and community that it was to curb adolescent obesity but do you know what it’s really doing? It costing the district more money than they’re earning. The students don’t like the food options they’re given now so they’ve stopped ordering school lunch which means that the income that they were getting has slowed from rush to a trickle and everyone is having to tighten their belts where funding is concerned. Not to mention that kids aren’t eating lunch now, which means that they’re less likely to concentrate during their afternoon classes. The grumbling in their stomachs will occupy their attention.

Another announcement at the beginning of that school year stated that face paint was no longer allowed at school functions because it obscures the wearer’s face. They are taking away the remainder of the freedoms that these teens had and replacing it with rule after rule after rule “in their best interest”. The problem is that no one is taking the time to ask these kids what their thoughts are and I’m beginning to see that more and more in my job as well. There are people who are “professionals” in their field and they think that they’re the only ones who know what’s best for the company or in this case the students. They do things that look good on paper but suck in execution but they don’t bother to ask the people whom it would ultimately effect. They just go ahead and change things and then wonder why it failed.

Finally, starting this fall there’s going to be two more weeks worth of days off this school year. Starting this fall, a school district in Northern Minnesota is dropping their school week from 5 days to 3 days a week because of “high gas prices”. We’re setting future generations up to fail in life when we need to be doing the opposite.

I apologize if I’ve wasted your time but if you’re as upset about even one of the things I’ve talked about then take action. Don’t let another day go by, don’t let another child miss out on a good education because of these new rules.