Elected Disaster

If you re over thirty and went to a public school think for a minute, what were your choices for electives? My senior year I had law studies, home ecc. and gym and my gym class only had about 30 kids in it. Many of today’s kids would be lucky to have a gym class with just forty kids.

Let’s not count foreign languages that are for the most part mandatory now (students must have two consecutive sections, though they can choose to continue to go on if offered) and gym (which are huge classes that are easy to get lost in) and lets see how things have changed at my school in just the last decade. My school by the way is pretty typical. Ribault, Raines, Forrest, Jackson, First Coast, Lee and Ed White are all local schools in the same boat.

I am told that ten years ago when my school had 1800 hundred students, we had a chorus and a music teacher, a wood shop instructor, two graphics teachers, three art teachers, two home economic teachers and a drama teacher. Chorus and one of the art classes was out before I arrived five years ago as was one of the graphic classes. Then in my first two years drama and the other graphics class went away. In the last year we have also lost all our home economic classes, and an award winning art teacher. This means when talking about pure electives (classes I and most likely you had an opportunity to take) we are down to woodshop, one art teacher and our music teacher and this is for 2100 hundred kids.

Heck, students can’t even find a respite in the library most periods as our librarian teaches two classes a day. She teaches what’s called an academic elective, research, though if you ask the kids, none elected to take it.

We pack the kids into remedial classes they don’t like and we wonder why they don’t do well. We don’t give them a break or put in classes they can look forward to and wonder why they don’t do well. We put kids in situations that they can’t be successful in, like pushing them through school until they hit high school where there is no where else to push them and then we wonder, why they don’t do well.

Well I’ll tell you and I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news but for many kids schools not that fun and if they didn’t’ have to go they wouldn’t and the system makes it worse by it’s choices. If kids don’t like school it’s no stretch to think that they won’t do well and why should they like it? Because we tell them they should?

Society robs them of their like of school and any joy for learning they might have had and it wonders, hey why isn’t this kid doing well. Then the powers-that-be and casual observers think, I know, it must be the teacher’s fault.

How about this, powers-that be and casual observers, my school is down to woodshop, one art teacher and our music teacher for 2100 hundred kids.

2100 kids

sick