Regarding the Holiday

Since it is almost Halloween I have some comments on schools and this wonderful holiday.

Now I am not quite sure about this but I know in recent years schools have discouraged wearing costumes during school because of violence and all those other reasons why kids cant have fun. Now I am not talking about middle schoolers, and high schoolers, I am talking just elementary. I totally understand the reasoning for why middle schoolers are not allowed to wear costumes.

BUT... how come elementary schoolers are discouraged? I think wearing costumes in elementary school is a great idea, it lets kids know that adults are excited about the day too, and want to encourage the holiday. When I was in elementary school Halloween was a blast; we got extra credit for wearing our costumes and we got to have a party in the classroom, sometimes with the other classes too. We used to play games, and parents would come in for some arts and crafts. Now I know that parents are sometimes too busy for this involvement in the kid's school during the day, but I know it was always great to have a fun day for such a fun holiday. It let students break loose for a little while and relax from school stress and routine.

Also to back up my reasoning I believe that Halloween allows the child to show their extreme individuality and be who they want for a day, without having to worry about being ridiculed. I think it's great to celebrate Halloween and I think it needs to be in the schools more, and why shouldn't it be, this way teachers dont have to worry about teaching about religious issues like Christmas and Hanukah.

What is the District Doing?

I am currently in two education classes, one goes off site to Tolman High School, the other is an introductory class to American Education. Currently in my American Edcucation class we are writing a context statement on a community in Rhode Island and compare it to the state of Rhode Island. Not just looking at the community, we are analyizing the school district and then narrowing our focus on a specific school in the district. I chose Tolman for obivous reasons, I spend enough time there why not figure out what's going on behind the scences.

So on Tuesday we started our research and we were asked to find what our community was like, what our district was like, along with our school. We had to find information on poverty levels, crime, budget, diversity, student population, basically all the basics of school; the things that no one really knows about. While doing my reasearch I came across graphs and charts and summaries about everything you could think of all based on the tests scores of the students and the Pawtucket community. Also I found the basic economic standards of RI, meaning average family income, family size, what kind of people are living in Pawtucket, and the abuse levels in the homes. I was amazed.

I know Pawtucket is an urban district and I know that the test scores are kind of low compared to the state but I didn't think they were this low. Students seem to be doing ok in English and Social Studies, but Math and Science is lacking. I dont understand how you could see this and not do something about it, especially the district. Tolman is classified as a school that needs to be monitored due to it's Performance Classifications. The graduation rates at in Pawtucket are low which doesnt help considering when kids drop out in a city enviroment where are they going to go...to the streets and that increases crime and drugs and no one needs that.

So my point to this whole saga is if these statistics are out there then why isn't anyone doing anything about it? Students, especially high school students, dont want to be contained in school, so why are we keeping them there if were not helping them? Our test scores are low and the district is falling apart, the kids dont want to be there and no one is fixing any of these problems. I think it's stupid to contain kids all day if your not going to teach them anything. I bet you they have better things to do than sit in a classroom when no one is going to teach them. No one is helping them raise their test scores, no one is helping thems stay in school. So knowing that wouldnt you think someone would step in to help? I think so but who am I to say anything.