Education letters 10/12

Male student in Cobb prefers female attire

NCHS Student: Seriously, people, us high school kids can handle things like this, believe me. It’s not like we haven’t seen stranger things on TV and, honestly, our school has bigger problems to worry about than someone who has a nontraditional image of himself.

Patrick: As long as he’s still staying within dress code requirements (skirts coming down to right below the knee, no midriffs, no see-through fabrics) and so forth, I see nothing wrong with it. I’ve known kids to wear fingernail polish, makeup, earrings or nose piercings, and not all of them were girls.

Lila: What world are you living in? Public schools have every right to regulate the dress code. Schools have enough on their plate already trying to educate students with often limited resources.

The schools don’t need any additional distractions from students wanting to “express themselves.” After school, these wanna-be self-expressers can do whatever they want after they leave the school grounds.

Fulton teacher: This is less about self-expression and more about having the ability to adhere to policy. His clothes were a distraction. He admitted that kids were always surrounding him. If he chooses to express himself through clothing, he has ample time to do so after 4 p.m. Until then, he should dress in what is deemed appropriate. He has no right to dress any way. He has a right to an education.

Tax dollars squandered by Linda Schrenko & Co.

SteveR: My wife’s classroom just got LCD projectors and new screens last week. Now we find out all classes in Cobb will get interactive whiteboards by December. Out go the new screens just installed — sit them beside those satellite dishes out behind the school.

Apparently it’s SPLOST money, so it’s OK. And they wonder why there’s low morale when you have a school board making these executive decisions with our taxpayers’ money. All the wasted money could have gone to salaries.

Private School Guy: We need an appointed state school super, not an elected one. The governor or an elected state school board should appoint someone who has had experience in curriculum, standards and in spending and allocating millions of dollars.

If they mess up blame it on the governor or the board. The U.S. secretary of education is appointed. The appointment should be approved and vetted by the General Assembly.

Berry College exorcism

Mary R: As a graduate of Berry, this incident on campus does not shock me. There have been Wiccan rituals and satanic rituals performed on the campus, so why should this be shocking to anyone?

V for Vendetta: Is it any wonder the rest of the nation looks at the South as if we were backwoods, Bible-thumping, racism-perpetuating fools? Let’s take a look at the past week:

1. Religion in schools (again)

2. Public official endorses religion in schools (again)

3. Claimed exorcism performed in college (um, that might be a first.)

Bittersweets: Schools combat cupcake menace

Echo: Many people seem unaware that the school (I think the principal’s discretionary fund) gets a cut of vending machine money. We have vending machines every few feet it seems. I think at last count there were almost 30.

And it does seem like the kids on free/reduced meals spend more money at these machines ... hot Cheetos for breakfast is pretty common (and gross!)

Ms. Crabtree: Oh, the memories of the early ’60s. Did anyone notice there were no obese kids in those school photos? Yet, back in those days, we all stopped at the soda shop after school for a Coke and whatever. My dentist even gave out ice cream certificates if you didn’t holler while he drilled your teeth sans novocaine. Yes, we walked home. No buses where I lived.

Got home, changed clothes and went out to play for a couple of hours, stickball, stoopball (NYC childhood), hide and seek, running races. We were active enough to burn off the calories. Who had a TV in their bedroom? Your mother sent you to your room to do your homework and read while she and dad watched Perry Mason.

Free-range children: No grapes. No balloons.

Mama-mia: Free range parenting is not just opening the door and kicking your kids out until dusk. It is about making the effort to teach them to take care of themselves, taking the time to really find out if and when they can take care of themselves, and then having the courage to let them do it.

In some ways and in some stages, I think free-range parenting takes more effort than helicopter parenting because you spend so much time/mental energy thinking through how to effectively teach safe independence and evaluating their readiness to go it alone.

On a day-to-day basis, it’s often simpler to just mentally check out, drive them around and over-schedule them than to take the time out of your day to really teach safety and resilience.

Catlady: Unless the consequences are truly life-threatening, give your children some space, let them solve some problems, get wet and dirty, devise their own games. Set the parameters, then back off.

Let your child tell you if they need homework help (and then give it judiciously), monitor their “technology” use and let natural consequences follow if they don’t take care of business.

Jessica: As much as I would like to have “free-range” kids, I don’t feel that I can do that. As parents, we are constantly being made aware of new threats to our kids’ safety and well-being, and it’s hard to know which ones deserve our attention and which are blown out of proportion.

Our parenting skills (or lack of them) is always being judged by someone (friends, teachers, grandparents, other moms), so many parents feel enormous pressure to over-parent.

Elementary teacher: As a teacher, I have come across way too many children who can’t take responsibility, can’t solve their own problems, and can’t take “losing the game.”

It seems that so many parents are spending their time protecting their children and fixing everything for them that these kids are growing up thinking and acting like nothing can touch them.

I get parents who get upset when their child gets in trouble for hitting someone and they come after me. Instead, why don’t you talk to your child about appropriate behavior, and teach them responsibility?

Research shows an A is an A in college success

ATLNative: I agree that students who get straight A’s generally have attitudes and study habits that make them highly successful in colleges but I do think that there are a few high schools in the metro area where hard work and strong study habits will often be rewarded with a B or, in certain situations, a C.

Tony: The reality is that desire to succeed is at the heart of achieving the American dream. This is part of the reason why we have our schools set up the way we do. When someone finally gets the desire to succeed, it is possible for them to get back into school or college. They are able to earn a degree, learn a trade, start a business and go for it.