10/18/98
Opelika * Auburn News* THE NEWSPAPER OF EAST ALABAMA*10/18/98
Column: OTHER VIEWS - Don't deprive kids of their summerby Bob Mount
Several transcriptional errors m my column last week may have mis-led readers to believe that state law does not require public school systems to conduct criminal background checks on applicants for teaching positions. It does, but the requirement does not require checks for crimes committed outside the state.
Now to the subject of year-round schooling.
When I was a youngster, incentives to do well in school included parental and teacher approval, self satisfaction and, to a more limited extent, peer pressure. Failure to do home work or misbehavior often resulted in staying after school or suspension.
Disapproval, detention or suspension were minor in comparison with another ominous disincentive to per forming poorlyÛthe possibility of one being sentenced to attend summer school. Summer school was usually taught by the toughest and most demanding male teachers in the system. For at least eight weeks, summer school attendees did hard labor for six hours or more each day in stifling, un-air-conditioned rooms.
Failing students whose parents, for whatever reason, allowed them to skip summer school were required the following year to repeat the grades or courses they failed.
Now, three generations later, comes a group of Auburn citizens and public school administrators recommending that all students in the Auburn city school system be deprived of their extended summer vacations. They advocate year-round schooling, and what little I know about the pros and cons of their plan is based on what I've read in the papers, on a few conversations I've had with parents and on some of my own rich personal experiences.
Opponents of YRS include not only the vast majority of Auburn University teachers who have students or spouses in the public schools, but also parents of students who customarily hold summer jobs, often of necessity.
Proponents of YRS con tend that shortened, more frequent vacation periods would benefit at-risk students, the implication being that during the shortened vacation period between each session they would be less likely to forget what they learned during the previous session. Maybe so, but would it not be more helpful to these students and less of a burden on everyone else to provide them with one or more intensive, high-quality instructional sessions during the summer?
Seems like it would to me.
The percentage of problem, or at-risk, students in the Auburn system is currently estimated at about 25 percent. Were it not for the sword of Damocles spectre of required summer school attendance poised above the heads of the remainder, the percentage of problem students could be even greater.
I predict that the proposal for YRS will be shelved until a more compelling case for implementing it can be made. It appears the idea of YRS currently enjoys a level of public support equivalent to that supporting the siting of an art museum in the Donald E. Davis Arboretum.
Bob Mount writes a weekly column for the Opelika-Auburn News.
Letter: Things to ponder on YRS
I was unable to stay until the end of the School Board meeting, Monday Oct. 12, but heard much of the discussion of the proposed changes to the Auburn calendar. It was a very positive meeting, conducted fairly, although it was clear the crowd and the board were not in agreement.
The group, by and large, supported their school board, they just disagreed with the proposed changes. And both of our newspapers pretty much expressed this in theirWednesday articles and letters. But the real problem remained unaddressed. Our schools train quite well, but they barely educate at all. Education requires the cooperation of parents, teachers, and community, to give children a sense of purpose, place and position, and it has never been successful in the absence of a spiritual influence.
Since interested parents and responsible teachers are what make Auburn schools ''good," it shouldn't much matter what schedule is chosen. Parents and teachers will make it work. I am not sure how they will resolve the extra cost, the problems caused by bussing the children all over town, the sterile atmosphere of their materialistic world, but again parents and teachers will make the system go. How well it will do this is another thing. I picked up only one mention from any panel member that what should be considered was what would be best for the children.
That was from Dr. Pate.
I got no sense at all that anyone grasped the difference between education and training. Education requires religion and training does not. Our system trains excellent engineers and veterinarians but does not teach people the value of people, that is, to know themselves.Education is done by family, neighborhood, community, individual teachers, local schools, local businesses and churches. It needs parents and teachers as allies, knowing one another well. In forcing attendance, the establishment has preempted the authority of parents and teachers and weakens this relationship.
The spiritual world may not be as understood as the material world but it is just as real. Under standing this does not mean that we necessarily pray a lot but it does mean we are aware of both worlds and shape all of our actions with them in mind. Being imperfect we blunder, but this is what we try to teach our children, and it becomes hard for them to grasp when their spiritual world is ignored while they are in school.
We are enormously rich, but while training the best engineers and veterinarians we turn out far too many at risk people. Material wealth exists side by side with spiritual poverty. Our schools are a major reason for this. They encourage parents to abandon responsibility for their children's education, they start a religious competition between secularism and parental beliefs and they present people in the government as morally superior to people in the business world.
Many parents are ignorant of this or resigned to it, but some are not.
For those who are not and need help, the help must come from extended families, neighborhood, communities and churches. Compulsory education directed from Washington and Montgomery is no help, it only makes things worse. The only reason the system works at all is Because of parents and teachers.
Test scores plummeted in the years after Sputnik when the Federal Government decided kids needed more scientific training. The interference of the new bureaucracy weakened the authority of teachers.
All societies establish their rules and laws through their religion and understand themselves, learn their essence by the way their people consider both the spiritual and material worlds. All education is religious, and in supposedly keeping religion out of schools we have made secularism the established religion and created a competition between it and the religion of many if not most parents.
Depending on your definition, secularism may not be a religion, but it functions like one. What parents and the School Board need to be discussing is education, not training. They need to make schools local, ponder how to slash school size so that parents know one another and work together and so that many religions can be accommodated. Then maybe our problems will be resolved. If this does not happen, we can be certain that school reform discussion will continue to dominate our politics, and schools will continue to turn out people unable to con tribute in a free society.
I think it was disingenuous of Dr. Martin to claim that local control existed in Auburn, since directly and indirectly he takes marching orders from Montgomery and Washington. How could he do otherwise, forbidden to hire teachers who know their subject, but lack a teachers certificate, and forbidden to mention religion in school?
George A. CrispinAuburn
Letter: YRS good for students, teachers
The children of Auburn City Schools spend about seven hours of every school day with a teacher. The teacher is the one who smiles at them; asks, listens, and answers continuous questions; shares knowledge about our world and the people in it (past and pre sent); gives hugs and pats on the back; and creates the environment that children learn in day after day, year after year.
A child can come to school as early as 7:15 a.m. from a terribly stressful morning at home and a soothing, caring teacher can calm those feelings within an hour. A happy, spirited child can also walk into a school at 7:15 a.m. and spend one hour with a stressful, frustrated teacher and that child can become tense and unhappy as well.
I want the opportunity to experience an alternative calendar similar to the one that Alexander City and Dadeville are using this year. I am beginning my 24th year of teaching and I have two children who attend Auburn City Schools.
My goal, as a teacher, is to greet each of the 350 children I teach every day with a smile and an exciting, effective lesson. I like think that my son and daughter walk into their classrooms with a caring, skilled teacher who truly wants to pro-vide the best learning environment possible.
An alternative calendar, with a minimum of two weeks off between each nine weeks of instruction (plus a two month summer vacation) would allow teachers time to recuperate and refresh them selves mentally and emotion ally. My 10th class of the day deserves the same effort and quality that my first class received, and most teachers will tell you that this is one of the greatest challenges of each day.
Teachers want to see every student reach their capacity for learning, but it takes a stable, healthy person to strive for this objective. The wear and tear of public school teaching is heavy. The needs of school children are many and varied, and the job of teaching goes so far beyond giving out information and evaluating student knowledge.
Teachers need to be at their best, and I sincerely believe that with a little time away from school between each nine-week grading period I can come back and be the best teacher possible. The 18 week stretch from January to June makes it so hard to give students my best effort by the time May rolls around. This leaves an entire month of school and many burned out teachers. I feel we owe it to our community to pro vide quality instruction every month of the school year.
Corning back to school the last week of July, after eight weeks off in the summer would still provide plenty of time to visit relatives, attend camps and just relax. I would certainly be as excited to return to school that week as I am the third week of August.
I would love to have two weeks off in the autumn to evaluate my new classes and the goals I have set for the year, relax at home with my children without the stress of daily homework assignments or projects or possibly go on a vacation somewhere that has never been an option before in October.
A three week holiday scheduled around Christmas would give teachers a week to get ready for any holiday celebrations, a week to visit with family or friends and a week to spend at home preparing for the third nine weeks of school.
An equally important time away from school would be the spring break. Two weeks are better than one for clearing your mind, calming your senses and preparing to offer the last and best nine weeks of the school year. Children deserve the best all nine months of the school year.
Many women select teaching because it is a career opportunity that is challenging, important, rewarding and one that can balance with raising a family and helping manage a home. The standard of excellence that is expected of teachers in Auburn City Schools is the same standard teachers set for themselves at home. I feel that one of the most positive benefits of an alter native calendar is that teachers would be able to do a better job in the classroom and students would find themselves in a more happy, productive environment. Better scheduling, better planning, better teachers, better studentsÛa better opportunity for Auburn.
Robyn HinesAuburn City School teacher