The point I was trying to get across is that one parent is not going to change anything, but many might. I'm sure there is probably 3 minutes of wasted time in each class. I know going to school is like work, and my kids know this. I know about stressful days, sometimes I work 12-14 hours without a break or a meal. I came on this forum stupidly thinking the majority of the parents would agree and would be willing to come to gether and PARTITION to change this. Little did I know that some parents would rather argue than assist in making life easier for there child.
With my situation with the book bags, I have spoken on the issue with the principle and some teachers, but your right, more parents should be addressing the school with these problems instead of this Forum.
Please... Take 2 mintues from each class and add it to the time allowed between periods. From what i hear from the high schoolers here in Clayton, their classes are 90 mins each. Drop it to 87. Big woop. You can do the same thing in middle school.
2 minutes is enough if... Considering the middle school students are on teams, and the teams are located next door to each other, students who leave class, go to their locker (usually right next to the room or across the hall from the room) and get their books without taking time to hang out at the water fountain, go to the bathroom (the teams have actual bathroom break times during the first 90 minutes of the day, at lunch, and at the end of the day), and socialize, CAN make it to class. Having taught at five different middle schools across the state, although I am no longer teaching middle school, I can tell you that students often CHOOSE to carry all books in order to have social time for 2 minutes. Many times I would tell my students to get what they needed for one or two classes, use their lockers, and not carry everything. I would see students coming into my classroom in the mornings with loaded bookbags on days where they had had NO HOMEWORK IN ANY CLASS the night before! They would tell me one of 2 things: either they were told by their parents to bring all of their books home so the parent could double check that they had their homework done (even if there was none) OR they didn't know the combination to the locker because they never used it during the day. For those who said they had 8 minutes between classes, where did you go to school? I attended the "old" Rose High School in Greenville, which had 2 different 2-story wings, a central classroom area in between those wings, outlying buildings, and trailers behind the PE fields for classrooms. We had 3 minutes between classes and still made it. Of course we NEVER carried our bookbags during school. We held the books we needed in our arms. This allowed us to save time at not having to take stuff out of the book bag and then putting stuff back in!
I went to a little school in KS (K through 12 were in the same school), we had 6 classes a day, 5 minutes in between each class and almost 1 hour for lunch. I remember, when I started driving, going home for lunch or going to where my mom worked and seeing her. I don't remember ever having as many days out of school as the kids do now, I remember snow days being added into our school year and if they weren't needed, well it just gave us extra days in school, and we started after Labor Day and were out of school around the middle of May. Our classes were not "blocks" and we had the same classes every day the whole year. Driver's Ed was part of the regular school day and those that took it drove more than 6 hours driving time before getting their permit. No one had to try out to play sports or be a part of the chorus (unless you wanted to be in the ensemble) and only cheerleaders had try outs. Also there was not a fast food line at school. You either ate what was given to you (we did not get to choose), go home for lunch or bring your own lunch from home. Grant it, it was a small school, but I know that the bigger schools were the same way at that time and yes, it was well over 20 years ago when I graduated, but we managed. Yes, I do feel there is too much pressure on kids now days. They are forced to grow up too fast, have no imagination any more, and yes I do feel there it too much homework at times. I believe kids should have a chance to be kids while still learning values and time management. Yes, in a way, going to school is like going to work, but kids still need to be kids. I don't agree with the EOG and EOC testing and having to pass these in order to pass their grade. A lot of kids do not do well with tests and I feel this puts way too much pressure on these kids. A lot of kids can do well in their classes until these tests come up and the pressure in unbelieveable. I know how stressed my kids are when it gets time for these test and I hate seeing them that way. Someone could argue that it prepares them for the pressures of life, well, I didn't have these and I believe I am doing ok. I believe that society has gotten to where our kids are treated more like adults than kids. We, as parents want so much for our kids that sometimes we forget that they are kids and need to be kids. There may be many of you that don't agree with me and that is ok. I am not writing my OPINION for a debate or to be picked apart by those of you that disagree with what I am saying. I am just stating what I feel.
Parents receive no respsect in the school system these days. If you indicate concern about something, you are treated in a very conscending manner, as though "how dare you have a complaint." My daughter has Honors History and Civics this year. Do you know what Wake co. school's idea of "honors history" is? It's putting both honors and non-honors level students in the same class. They hear the same lecture and use the same materials. The only difference between honors and non-honors students is that the honors students are expected to complete higher quantities of work in order to pass. For example, the class studies the U.S. Congress. The honors students are required to turn in 2 essays about two different members of congress in order to make a passing grade on the assignment. The non-honors students are only required to turn in one essay to make a passing grade on the assignment. BUT...the non-honors students are allowed to do an additional essay along with their one required essay (IOW, the same assignment as the honors students) and they'll get extra credit. If the honors student turns in only one essay, they get 1/2 their grade counted off. What the heck is up with that?!?! From the project rubrics my daughter brings home, it's obvious that the only difference is the quantity of work, and non-honors are always offered the option of completing the same amount of work as the honors students for extra credit. So it appears that "Honor" students are nothing more than kids who have to juggle their time-management skills...and not their brains...more than other kids.
re: My 2 cents: I had a parent complain about the weight of her child's backpack and that this child needed a rolling bookbag. The reason the bookbag weighed so much was the she insisted that ALL books be brought home every night whether there was homework in that class or not. ??
Well, I have not ask my child to bring all his books home. He brings them home, because he doesn't have time to go to his locker before bus time. He's afraid he will forget something and be in trouble because he didn't do a homework assignment. I have never seen so many people oppose a simple solution to a problem that so many children have.
I never owned a backpack until I got to college (showing my age). I never had to take more than 2-3 books home and I carried them in one arm and could finish all my homework on the bus ride home. I could turn in my homework on a single sheet of paper and not have to run around with a trapper keeper for each class and a day to day journal to keep. We had plenty of time between classes to go to our lockers and eat with some social time left over. Schools, expectations, parents, administrators, teachers are out of control today. (Not the kids. They still act the same dumb way we did). We have forced kids to "organize" the way the gurus tell us we should organize. We can't allow them to socialize (don't give me that crap about schools are for learning, not socializing. Effective social skills and the ability to get along with others is as important as knowing Pythagorus' Theory). Again, we are creating zombies who will be unable to be effective citizens. Here's the example: My day: Mordor, you have homework from page 68, all the odd problems. End result: I figure out when, how, what, etc. and met the stated goal. Turned it in. Today: SonofMordor, you have homework from page 68, all the odd problems. You need to write that down in your planner booklet, not in your notebook. You need to turn that in on single, sided, college-ruled lined paper with 13 perforation points, BUT not in your notebook. It needs to be stapled to sheet of graph paper, 4 per inch side, not 5 per inch kind. But when you turn it in, make sure you have your name, class, date, SSN, and fico score written in the upper left hand corner, but don't exceed more than 2 inches towards the middle of the paper or 3 inches towards the bottom. Problem created? We have a workforce that can't see the end goal and figure out how to do it. I see it almost every day. Schools have set such bizarre parameters on how kids must approach the work, they don't know how to determine a process for doing the work. When they get in the workforce, they expect you to tell them every little detail of how to do it (zombie). End result....I get to do their job plus mine.
THIS IS NOT MEANT TO OFFEND ANYONE OR TICK ANYONE OFF - JUST CAME ACROSS IT AND FOUND IT INTERESTING! IT IS QUITE LENGTHY, BUT INTERESTING NONE THE LESS. An 8th Grade Education In 1895 10-17-5 Note - It should be pointed out that snopes.com, though admitting the test is genuine, calls this matter "false," passing a value judgment instead of sticking to the veracity or incredulity of a matter. In a rather lengthy, overblown defense of today's educational system, snopes goes out of its way to render this material essentially meaningless, even casting doubt on the 'dumbing down of America.' Sorry, snopes, but that dog won't hunt! There was a time when someone with a mere high school education could determine the meanings of words they'd never heard simply because they were schooled in latin, and could ascertain the meaning from the latin root. Snopes would have us believe knowing such drivel is pointless and has no value. http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.htm ----- Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they "only" had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Look what it took to get an 8th grade education in 1895; this is what you were expected to KNOW. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895? Can You Pass This Test Now? This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, Kansas, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, KS, and reprinted by the Salina Journal. 8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, KS -1895 Grammar (Time, one hour) 1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters. 2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications. 3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph 4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of"lie,""play," and "run." 5. Define case; Illustrate each case. 6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation. 7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar. Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours) 1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic. 2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold? 3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050 lbs. for tare? 4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals? 5. Find the cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton. 6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent. 7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per meter? 8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent. 9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods? 10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt. U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes) 1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided. 2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus. 3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War. 4. Show the territorial growth of the United States. 5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas. 6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion. 7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe? 8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865. Orthography (Time, one hour) Do we even know what this is?? 1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication 2. What are elementary sounds? How classified? 3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals 4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?) 5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule. 6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each. 7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup. 8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last. 9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays. 10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication. Geography (Time, one hour) 1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend? 2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas? 3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean? 4. Describe the mountains of North America 5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco. 6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S. 7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each. 8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude? 9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers. 10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth. Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete. Gives the saying "he only had an 8th grade education" a whole new meaning, doesn't it?
This just shows the ignorance of the test. Why would anybody in Kansas know or care! :lol: I'm sure that was useful to them. I guess I don't have to point out that this test (at least the History and Geography sections) is so poorly designed that it wouldn't be much of indicator of anything. That said, I still a number of tests along these lines. At least it wasn't multiple choice and true/false.
I read the whole Snopes report, but I failed to see where they admitted the test was genuine. I did see this: Language clarification from M-W Online: Have you ever come across a test you took years ago? I have, and was amazed at how much I knew way back then! Can you imagine taking an SAT a few years after you have been out of school? But I think schools today are too focused on test taking, with all the state and federal requirements. Yes, of course they have to take some tests to measure what they are learning, but does that need to be the focus of the entire educational experience?
Again, would any of you sign a partition regarding the length of time between classes being to short?
No wonder the schools do what they want to, the people will not come together to make a difference. Out of all the people who have read this, not one said they would sign a partition. The search continues.
Just goes to show you how well the School board worries about our kids......THey would perfer to protect the lovely floors in the schools and have the kids lug around 15-25 pound backpacks and hurt themselves then buy a darn floor polisher to get out the scuff marks from the rolling packs. dumb dumb dumb! Rolling packs should be allowed and the kids should have more time between classes to make the most of their lockers.
No... Lunch is about half-way inbetween the school day. Carry half in the morning, half in the afternoon change them out at lunch. Roller back packs... :roll: I see lawsuits coming from the same fussing parents who want their kids to have them. There's no middle ground for anything dealing with kids, parents, & any school. :roll: Edited: Silky... this ^^^ isn't strickly directed to you. But rather the whole idea of this extra time inbetween classes in general & roller back packs. It just chaps my butt how parents want to pamper their kids until they get married. How about letting your kid grow a freakin back bone and not be a pansy.
I have two sons at McGee's Middle 7th and 6th grade. And the time for locker usage IS very short. My older son had the same issue last year as the other son this year. They have so many books that the book bags are wearing out faster. So complaints in this area are valid. Most parents can't afford a new bag every 3 to 4 months. As far as complaining, about stuff at schools, if you don't say anything, NOTHING will be done. And I went to a public school as well. I had alot of books too but I had no book bags. However, we were given more time to go to our lockers. And kids playing and socializing was not a problem due to hall monitors. If the school doesn't have any, GET SOME. We all who have been in the public school system know that ALOT has changed for kids these days. They are required to learn more at a younger age as well as they are maturing faster physically too. Not to mention the peer pressures they have today. So instead of stressing how it was done when WE were kids, let us all realize that THIS day and age are different and there are NEW problems and challenges. Give the kids more time at the locker....it really isn't that much of a big deal is it? Parents have to suck up enough with school supplies, new school clothes, rising lunch costs, fund raisers, etc... Not to mention the cost of everyday living. Not all families are middle to upper-middle class incomes. So if kids need more locker time, they should get it.
kookookacho, This is strictly directed to you, giving someone 3 extra minutes doesn't make them a pansy. My kid happens to have a thick skin and can very well handle himself in most situations. He's very assertive, yet very compassionate to anyone who isn't as strong or as lucky as he is. This isn't about toughening up, it's about what is freaking possible or impossible to do in 2 minutes. Two bookbags makes some sense, but at some point during the day the kid is going to have to carry both; to school and from.
I didn't say 2 book bags what I ment was swap out half the books at lunch. Buying an extra book bag would be a waste of money. I'm glad your kid can handle himself. 8)
