LonBadgett@aol.com wrote:
> The debate over year-round schools has always struck me as an example of
> how poorly people analyze, debate, and resolve complex issues. For
> instance:
>
> 1. The traditional American school calendar AND year-round schedules are
> only two of hundreds of education options available.
Living through four days of pollution in a studio where an air conditioner
that is too big for the space is inadaquete for one room because of the
heat retention of the buildings, and remembering the summers where I was
able to do nothing more than swim, I wonder how in this time of austerity
society would handle the costs of making a learning space learnable. Few
of the buildings are air conditioned and yet the people asking for this
alternative( as well as the one proposed by the Governor of New York this
week) are made by people who could stand the heat themselves. The
Governor of New York wants High School students to declare a "major" and
focus on that during High School. When are these students going to have
the time to learn to be human beings?
When their sexuality is strongest we give them science as a substitute.
Sit in that uncomfortable chair and get control of those hormones! Then
you wonder why they are good at technique and lousy at social skills when
they need them in the workplace. In New York City, with both parents
working and the schools abandoning serious arts and sports, the kids
gather in gangs to teach themselves about being together. Is it any
wonder that we have kids killing people in the park or throwing their
babies in the garbage cans? It is truly frightening how much these
children know about drugs, undisciplined sexuality and getting along in a
violent culture. We played in the band and watched the twirlers with
their short skirts. Here, the unlimited adolescent atmosphere makes AIDs
a concern of all parents, loving or not.
Would more school in a hot room help? How about a look at Cat on a Hot
Tin Roof, or Streetcar Named Desire for the answer to that one? Math,
Science and Social Studies do little to channel testasterone. Some think
that vocational training will substitute money for sexuality and drugs.
Well they should look into the sexual practices of the CEOs with money to
spare and remember that on Wall Street John Baptiste Say's law "Supply
creates demand" is called the first rule of a successful drug dealer.
Cheers from the NEA wars.
Ray Evans Harrell
--Ray Evans Harrell <mcore@IDT.NET>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>