The school system continues to disappoint me. I look back to when I was in school and it seems like a much simpler time. We had class, recess, art, music and PE throughout the day. We were kids and were treated as such. We were pushed to our limits, learning and studying, but we were always given that ½ hour to an hour to run and play and get ready to focus again. We weren’t expected to know what we wanted our career to be when we graduate and we didn’t have to worry about failing the entire grade because of one bad test score.

We didn’t have to worry about having an overcrowded school, because the only kids attending it were the one’s that lived close by. There was never a question of the teacher not knowing everything that was going on in the classroom, and every child was given the attention that was needed to ensure success.

It’s a shame that kids now are not given that same experience. Recess belongs to the kindergarten class. They are still allowed to be children. They have that fun time as well as field trips and an atmosphere where they are happy to learn. Once they reach first grade everything changes. They will be lucky to get to burn energy once a week and field trips are cut in half. They begin to get discouraged, and rightfully so. With the rate they are taking away the art, music and PE classes, they will have nothing to help them clear their minds in the upcoming years.

Where I live, there are 33 kids in a class, but can have up to 36. There are two teachers, but does that really make much of a difference? There is no way that they are getting the attention that is needed to fully succeed. The truly sad thing is that the “good” kids are the ones that are ignored the most. I have been told on several occasions that the child did everything expected, but the teacher didn’t notice because she was busy dealing with another child, or because the teacher sat on the other side of the room and couldn’t see.

The overcrowded situation is because of bussing. Why send children that live a stone throw away from the school to one across town, and take those kids across town and put them in this school? This is ridiculous. It’s pure politics. If the city would allow the children who live in each area to go to the closer school, maybe it would solve this issue. We would truly know where new schools needed to be built in order to reduce the class size. Something needs to be done before the whole system goes down the toilet. If I had to grade the system, it would get an F.

This is just one woman’s opinion. Take care.