AJC.com > Blogs > Get Schooled > Archives > 2007 > August > 24 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USHot Enough For Ya?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On my lunch break, I sometimes walk down toward Georgia State University, a few blocks away. There’s one shop I pass by that leaves its doors open and keeps the air conditioning on full blast.
Walk by the door and you walk through a nice little column of cold, manufactured air. Yes, in record-setting heat, air conditioning feels absolutely heaven-sent.
Unfortunately, students and teachers aren’t always so lucky when it comes to experiencing the wonders of A/C.
Air-conditioning problems in old public schools — as we’ve seen in DeKalb County this week — are common. Sometimes even new schools have difficulty getting everything in working order.
And students can’t always get relief on the school bus, either. Most, including those in Fulton County, aren’t equipped with A/C. Sure, the windows open, but only half-way.
When I took a tour of Cherokee High School earlier this month, we stopped in the old gymnasium where freshmen were told they’d be taking personal fitness class. It was stuffy and humid and the large industrial fans churning high above the wooden bleachers weren’t helping matters.
It reminded me that gyms aren’t always air-conditioned, either.
Now, with billions in taxpayer money being spent on school construction throughout metro Atlanta, you’d think someone would make air-conditioning old gyms and school buses a priority.
Wouldn’t you?
Comments
By V for Vendetta
August 24, 2007 10:15 AM | Link to this
Sure, it can get hot, but …
Kids need to toughen up as well. In classrooms where it can impact the learning experience, that’s one thing. They need to be air conditioned and comfortable. But if I hear one more kid in PE complain about the heat, or one more kid complain about it while walking to class, I just might have to slap the yellow off of their teeth. The kids today are such babies.
Book bags are too big!
Team sports mean some kids get left out!
It’s really hot outside!
Big freaking wahhhhh. I know I sound harsh, but we’re succesfully breeding generations of cry baby pansies. One or two kids die because of the heat and everyone wants to pitch a fit. You know, one or two kids die each year from shark attack, but we don’t surround the schools with nets, do we?
I really hesitate to complain about something like this. Sounds like just another place where the government can stick its big, stinking nose. Suck it up kids, life aint always a walk in the park.
By Jeff
August 24, 2007 10:16 AM | Link to this
Why should we FURTHER coddle the cry baby wimps? We do TOO MUCH of it anyway as is!
Now, you start enforcing discipline in the schools and I MIGHT be persuaded to allow more work on AC.
By WFC
August 24, 2007 10:33 AM | Link to this
I bet that all county offices full of overpaid administrators are air conditioned. All supers and associate supers should be required to ride a school bus once per week.
By Jeff
August 24, 2007 10:58 AM | Link to this
WFC:
When we started thinking that CHILDREN had to be the same as ADULTS, our educational system went kaput.
TRAIN UP a child the way he should go and he will not depart from it….
We are TRAINING - as V said - a generation of cry baby pansies.
By Stacey
August 24, 2007 10:59 AM | Link to this
While I don’t believe that air conditioning should be nowhere near the top of the list of priorities in “fixing” the school, I do think it’s important. I know for a fact that some of the schools in DeKalb County (for instance) don’t have windows that open. I would imagine that it would be stiffling hot in the classrooms if the air didn’t work. Despite being cold natured, I felt like I was suffocating at times when the air went out in my house last summer and that was with my windows open and fans on!
WFC…When I was in high school, only about half the school was air conditioned windows opened in the other buildings. In the fall, the heat to the campus was turned on based on the calendar and not the temperature. We would sometimes freeze in the classroom for two weeks and the administrators would refuse to turn the heat on. The administative office always nice and comfortable.
By WFC
August 24, 2007 11:16 AM | Link to this
Dear Jeff… I guess that we’ll have to agree to raise our children differently. The temp in Atlanta has averaged 101 the last 10 days. Without AC the south would not have experienced the economic growth of the last 40 years. By the way, my 6’-0”, 185 lb. scholar-athlete son at Northview H.S. is NOT a “baby pansy.” He’s “super honor role” and I’m proud of him. And I’ll continue to drive him to and from school as long as busses don’t have AC. It sounds as if you had a hard time growing up and want to needlessly inflict the same on others. Sad.
By Jeff
August 24, 2007 11:34 AM | Link to this
WFC:
Actually, prior to MS my childhood wasn’t that hard - other than running from the bullies after I got off from the bus. But I DISTINCTLY remember playing outside for HOURS in this level of heat without it affecting me.
The GREATEST skill my parents EVER gave me was the very one that has brought me through all the trials I have gone through starting in 6th grade: They taught me to make the best I can with what I am given. Never ask anyone for anything. Do it on your own, and do it BETTER than ANYONE else. It is this survival instinct that is at the CORE of who I am. YES, I prefer air conditioned offices to camping in the wilderness under tree trunks and tarp. But it was because of the experience of living in the wilderness under tree trunks and tarp that I know that I CAN get out and do it again if something ever happens and I NEED to.
The generation being raised now - even including my youngest brother- DOESN’T HAVE THAT, and because of that if the Global Warming people or the preachers or whoever-else-that-says-that-massively-bad-things-are-coming-within-the-next-few-decades are RIGHT, the generation being raised now will be among the FIRST to die in it. Me? As long as the planet can still support human life, I’ll be able to survive on it.
When kids are complaining about the heat, I almost WISH a EMP would go off and kill every computer in the US. Just to show them what it was like even 3 generations ago!!!
By V for Vendetta
August 24, 2007 12:07 PM | Link to this
WFC,
What do honor roll and being a baby have to do with each other? No one here is blaming you for driving him to school. If I was given the choice as a student, I would have picked the air conditioned car as well. What I’m saying, is that if I DIDN’T have the choice I wouldn’t have complained about it.
As Jeff said, when I was younger I would have been out the door playing in the yard within five minutes of getting home. Trust me, even the athletes now are not as tough. I know plenty of student-athletes now, and they complain far more than anyone did when I was in high school. All of this coddling is bad for their sense of competition and entitlement. It breeds wimps, maybe not always physically.
I’m glad your son would choose to ride in the car, anyone with common sense would, but it’s the kids who complain about every physical hardship under the sun that I have a problem with. When I was in high school, we had to walk uphill (both ways) naked in the snow carrying a wounded snow leopard on our backs.
By WFC
August 24, 2007 12:13 PM | Link to this
Well, Jeff, our parents taught us similar lessons and I hope that I’m passing these lessons on to my son… you have to earn what you get. I’m also advising him of the lessons I’ve learned from 31 years of teaching high school. To wit: virtue and competence are not always rewarded and a person must fend for himself. That’s why I’m comfortably retired with time to blog. However, I’ll continue to believe that in 2007 it is a disgrace that children attempting to learn are deprived of AC. I simply don’t understand the “survivalist” mentality and won’t inflict it on my son. I want him to concentrate on higher order thinking. Progress is the goal of humanity and I hope that my son will strive to make his son’s life better as I’ve worked to make his better.
By JustMe
August 24, 2007 12:18 PM | Link to this
Come on Bridget, you can do better.
How about - where is our tax money going in DeKalb if it isn’t being used to upgrade the facilities?
This blog that expounds on the good and bad of AC is really stupid.
By Jeff
August 24, 2007 12:26 PM | Link to this
JustMe:
Theresa over at Momania has blogged both Weds AND Thurs this week about AC…
Weds it was about AC and the bus, Thurs it was about AC and home…
By WFC
August 24, 2007 12:46 PM | Link to this
V… my point was that my son WAS DOING HIS JOB and not complaining about any hardship. My other point IS and will remain that I think it is a DISGRACE that children have to suffer in the heat while admin types have AC. I also grew up in the pre-AC south. It was brutal. However, there is NO EXCUSE in 2007 for a repeat of my misery. The world has changed. I want (and will make every effort to ensure) my son to have a BETTER life than I did. I guess that I’m tired of the “young peple are whiny wimps” argument. After 40 years of studying and teaching history, I’ve reached the conclusion that human beings have changed very little in the last 5000 years.
By mum
August 24, 2007 1:00 PM | Link to this
At least one of those Dekalb County middle schools had problems with the AC last year and surprise, surprise, it still wasn’t fixed this year. Where’s the money going, ask Dr. Lewis because it seems that the older schools are getting short shrift. SW Dekalb was undergoing some truly messed up renovations last year and this year their AC wasn’t working. It’s a jobs program for somebody I guess because you’d have thought they would fix everything while they were already working. Reminds me of NYC when the boiler in the apartment buildings would always broke at the start of winter every year.
By Sam
August 24, 2007 1:30 PM | Link to this
I went by my child’s Dekalb high school one afternoon when the temp was 101…the blinds were closed, windows open, lights out in many classrooms …kids and teachers were just sitting …sweltering. I got this idea. Dekalb usually responds imediately to bad press. So I called one of the TV stations and told them to come to the school and get pictures of what was going on. Then called the county office and told the super’s office what I had done….They had a crew there within an hour.
If children were left in a house with no AC and the temps inside were up to 99 or 100…. and a neighbor reported it to the police , Dollars to doughnuts the children would be removed. And an animal in a car….G— forbid!!!!!
By V for Vendetta
August 24, 2007 1:59 PM | Link to this
WFC, I understand. And if you’ll scroll back, you’ll see that I previously said that it is inexcusable not to have AC in the classroom. Maybe I’m just grumpy today. :-)
I’m just sick of the complaining about everything and the parents who support it. You see to have instilled some good virtues in your son. Those qualities will carry him far beyond the wimps.
By Ernest
August 24, 2007 2:57 PM | Link to this
To your point, priorities are set when people complain enough and they are added on the ‘to do’ list for all to see. What many have to also remember is we have SPLOSTs to supplement the existing education budgets because it doesn’t include enough for building & construction, buses, & technology. Add to that, maintenance & operations (M&O) budgets have been cut over the past few years. We now have fewer custodians throughout the various districts. What impact do you think this has had on the conditions of the school buildings?
Those who want to join me and advocate for higher property taxes for schools, meet me at the Gold Dome in January… :)
By thomas
August 24, 2007 5:13 PM | Link to this
My room is hot!!!! I have complained about the air for weeks. I have been given the runaround for weeks.
I sweat in my classroom. There is no excuse for it.
By luvs2teach
August 24, 2007 6:39 PM | Link to this
V for Vendetta - I laughed out loud at your first post today - I was discussing the very same things with my “Will & Wendy Whiners”…
Of course, my parents walked 10 miles to school in a blizzard uphill…both ways!
By Tony
August 24, 2007 6:54 PM | Link to this
Air Conditioning has not been the source of the economic growth in the south. Perhaps the economic growth allows more people the privilege of cooling their air. How did so many of us make it through our childhood years without A/C? I don’t think the 100+ temperatures of southern summers adversely affected my brain, nor do I think it will adversely affect our children now. I do, however, have concerns over all the children being cooped up continuously whether at home or school where air is constantly recirculated. No tolerance for allergens! Kids need to be outside more even when it is hot. It seems all people do is whine when they are the least bit uncomfortable or inconvenienced.
By jim d
August 27, 2007 8:44 AM | Link to this
Sorry I missed y’all friday—I was out in the heat playing 18.
I’m just curious though about who would be the first to complain or bring legal actions should one of their kids fall out in the heat in school? Especially if the child had other health problems that might result in a heat related death. I know it surely wouldn’t be any of these bloggers. They’d smile and say, “toughen up kid!”