Ok, I am in what could be called the Student Council of my school. I was in a group that basically took the concerns of the student body and take note of it, then later make a solution. My project along with three others were to make the school year better.
Which meant that the 180 days in school, were either to be shortened or the hours actually in school could be shortened.
So we came up with a few solutions:
1. We don't affect anything, but school would start at 8:30 then 7:45 (two years ago, the previous group was able to push it from 7:15 to 7:45), then we would get some sleep. We came up wth the idea after an experiment of two classes of the same subject, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. We found that the one in the morning did 5-10% less than the one in the afternoon. We did a full presentation, spending a few hours each day for three weeks coming up with enough facts and properly made the presentation and it was declined.
2. Go to school at 8:30, we take out lunch and homeroom, in addition we make band and the Voc. School times fit the school times. So that they had classes during the same classes we had classes. This subtracted two hours from the school day. We would get out at 1:30 instead of 2:30. It was a 50/50 with the students, some wanted homeroom for homework and hanging out with friends, others liked the idea of coming to school later and leaving early. It wasn't passed.
3. We add an hour to school, so instead of 82 minutes it would have been 97 minutes for each class. This would have brought the school year down from 180 down to 160 days. Many students liked it, the teachers liked it because more vacation time, and more teaching time. It wasn;t passed.
Others were variations to the above, like adding something here and something there. None of it was passed. The four years of me bing on this team, and the two years I was head of the team, nothing was accomplished. Now since I am graduating this year, I am wondering why did even do it all, with only one success.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Unfortunately, the decisions aren't made with respect to what would be good for the students, or even the teachers. It's made by business-oriented administrators who are more concerned with making the budget and keeping things organized than letting the students get an extra half hour of sleep.
Of course, I totally agree with the idea of having school start a bit later. Teenagers have been proven to be more "nocturnal" in the manner that they get up later, and go to bed later. It's just natural. Unfortunately, too many school administrators are blinded by tradition.
Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :
Too stubborn to quit???
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
quote: Who cares about this stupid election? We all know it doesn't matter who gets elected president of Millard. You think it's going to change anything around here, make one single person happier or smarter or nicer? The only person it matters to is the one who gets elected. The same pathetic charade happens every year, and everyone makes the same pathetic promises just so they can put it on their transcripts to get into college. So vote for me, because I don't even want to go to college, and I don't care, and as president I won't do anything. The only promise I make is that if elected I will immediately dismantle the student government, so that none of us will ever have to sit through one of these stupid assemblies again!
quote:Originally posted by Matrix: Now since I am graduating this year, I am wondering why did even do it all, with only one success.
Because it was the right thing to do. It was probably a foregone conclusion that your work would go unrecognized, unrewarded, and even unused by the school staff, and also by your fellow students who probably thought you did nothing and only served to pad your resume. However, to do less than what you did would have validated their invalid beliefs. So, take pride in a job well done. (Of course, patting yourself on the back for unrecognized, unrewarded, and unused work will only suffice for so long. Eventually, since, as you now know, that is how it almost always works out, you will end up a bitter cynic, a blase sell-out, an oblivious ignoramus, or in a mental-institution [Yes, I know what categories I probaby sound like I fall into.]).
Posted by Matrix (Member # 376) on :
Lol, thanks. Actually we did have access to some of the budget, not to spend, but to see what they have to spend per year. All four major plans would cost equal or less of hwo much we are spending now. However what was the big crunch, was the effort of actually making it work. I mean after it we got it under way, it would cost less.
What we had to look at was:
1. Time: basically the time corresponding with every other school. We can't have high school buses driving around at the same time as elementary schools.
2. Teachers: Everyone who pays taxes now for school already screams at how little teachers work, they work a 6-7 hour day, only teach half the classes, and get almost half the year off. Now to make that shorter would cause hell among tax payers. Look at it now, they refuse to pay higher taxes for the benefit for their children now.
3. Students: More time at home, more time on the streets. Most would say, use the extra time to keep them in school, and learn more useless crap about crap that we'll never use in our entire lifetime.
Those are the major three, small things such as bus times, other school times, and even moral of the school had to be considered.
Edit: I fixed some grammer and spelling errors because some people do not overlook rather obvious mistakes.
[ June 22, 2002, 10:51: Message edited by: Matrix ]
Posted by Snay (Member # 411) on :
quote:only teach have the classes, and get almost half the year off
Huh?
Maybe nothing got done because no one understood you?
quote:they work a 6-7 hour day
Teachers work quite a bit more then the hours of the school day, you twit.
[ June 22, 2002, 09:21: Message edited by: Snay ]
Posted by Matrix (Member # 376) on :
Did I say anything about me thinking that? Read a little more. I said the taxpayers think that, not me. They work at home to correct papers, and do their schedules. I am fully aware of it. That's why teachers were all up for it.
Second, I can perfectly understand what I just wrote. Maybe you have a reading problem. You Snay feel the need constantly to say that you don't understand me.
I'll write so you can understand:
The people who may money to big people who run this big island do not know that the people who teach the little people the way of life work after their time in the big teaching building. They think that the teaching people work only six to seven hours a day vs. the working grownups work 8-10 hour days. The teaching people work only 180+ days a year, where the grownups are all year.
And here's the difinitions of the big words:
Teaching: to help make the little people learn.
building: that big thing that you live in each day and go in so you are not outside
grownups: the old people who work and take care of the little people
people: all the walking things that are around you.
Posted by The BWC (Member # 818) on :
On teachers -(WARNING - off subject) What I really hate is that everybody makes out like teachers get paid so little. I have a friend up the road in Conover, he works at Lenoir Rhyne College as Accounts Payable(the person who writes checks and oversees buisiness transactions), and teachers get paid about 4000 bucks more than him.
Snay: I think it's just you who thinks Matrix makes no sense
[ June 22, 2002, 11:26: Message edited by: The BWC ]
Posted by First of Two (Member # 16) on :
Not only do teachers work after school hours, they spend the school day with upwards of 25 (at a time) children, many of whom are undisciplined brats who don't want to be there, don't care to learn, and don't care what the consequences of their actions are.
And they have to be NICE to them. And all their powers of discipline have been taken away, and if they even touch one of the little weasles in passing , it could end their career, and the kids KNOW that.
And their parents, who generally can't conceive that their darling little Johnnie might have done something WRONG, no matter if it was caught on videotape, the teacher must have digitally altered it.
Anybody who complains about how easy teachers have it should TRY IT for a few months.
Posted by Matrix (Member # 376) on :
Yes, I completely understnad all of that. But on the surface, most tax payers from what I understand, only see the 6-7 hours and the 180 day work year. My dad keeps saying its the best job in the world, of course he's kidding.
Posted by The BWC (Member # 818) on :
The parents don't care about their kids enough to teach them how to act in school and when the kid gets in trouble they freak out over the teacher and blame her while it's there fault.
Show's how self-indulged people are.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
My birthday-inspired grace period for incivility is over, so watch it.
Posted by The Same Ultra Magnus (Member # 239) on :
Ayman al-Zawahiri's?
Posted by BWC - Phase II (Member # 818) on :
^ Just remind me where that come from again. It seems familiar.
Oh, wait. tell me in 25 minutes. Clarissa Explains It All is on...
Posted by BWC - Phase II (Member # 818) on :
Ingore this. Flare just performed an odd reaction.
[ June 22, 2002, 20:53: Message edited by: BWC - Phase II ]
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Yeah, I bet.
Posted by Capped In Mic (Member # 709) on :
consider it ingored.
Posted by Snay (Member # 411) on :