June 19, 2007
FOUR FOR FRIDAY - THE EDUCATION EDITION
Q1 - Hands Off: Hugging is now a punishable offense at a Fairfax County, Virginia, school. School children at Kilmer Middle School in suburban Washington, DC, are now under a zero-tolerance touching policy. They're banned from poking, prodding, hugging, and even high-fiving one another. In your opinion, is this a good or bad thing?
Q2 - School Lunch: Did you bring a bag lunch to school or did you buy your lunch in the cafeteria? Did any of the schools you attended--excluding college or prep school--offer breakfast?
Q3 - Paying for Performance: Starting this fall, New York City students and their families could earn as much as $1,000 a year for doing well on standardized tests and showing up for class. As part of the City's new Opportunity NYC program (a conditional cash transfer program aimed at helping New Yorkers break the cycle of poverty), families can earn $25 or $50 per month for 95 percent school attendance for elementary, middle, and high school students; $25 for attending parent-teacher conferences; and $50 for obtaining a library card. An improvement in scores or proficiency on standardized tests at the elementary and middle school levels can earn a family from $300 or $350 per test; while at the high school level, a student can earn $600 for each passing grade on individual Regents exams. Incentives of $25 will be earned for both parental review of the test and discussion with teachers; high school students can earn $50 for taking the PSAT exam, and will share $600 with their parents for annually accumulating 11 credits, and a $400 bonus for graduating. Again, in your opinion, is this a good or bad thing? Should we be offering cash incentives for academic participation and performance?
Q4 - High School Reunions: Have you ever been to a high school reunion (yours or someone else's)? If so, what was it like? If not, is it because you refuse to go to one? If so, why?
Posted by Mikal at June 19, 2007 9:35 PM
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1. Wrong wrong wrong. I know this is a response to our litigation-happy era, but Kilmer's non-touching policy is stupid; their legal liability notwithstanding. It's teaching fear.
As the Uncle of a borderline autistic nephew who cringed away from/was violently afraid of human contact, it's he opposite of what most children need... human contact.
2. I went to a parochial school. We didn't get school lunches until late in the game, and even then we had to walk to the neighboring public school. Breakfast? Yeah right.
3. If a cash incentive is what it takes, I'm all for it.
However...
I'd take it a little further. If the student graduated and went on to further education, I'd be willing to triple or quadruple the award if it was applied towards further education.
4. I refused to go to any of mine. High School was four years of nonstop, unadulterated hell. I keep in contact with the handful of people who I care about and ignore everyone else. I really don't care about connecting with my tormentors after all these years, but I do hope that they teach their kids to respect others like they didn't.
Q1 - Hands Off: Ridiculous. Just keep them home if this is what you're going to do. They're kids for Pete's sake.
Q2 - School Lunch: No breakfast. Brought lunches or mostly ate the school lunch.
Q3 - Paying for Performance: I think our society is in trouble if we have to pay kids to perform in school. The rest of the world performs since they have to in order to better their lives, we're going to get our butt's kicked in the next 100 years if this is where we're at.
Q4 - High School Reunions: I went to my 10 year reunion. It was fun. We didn't have a 5 year, didn't have a 15 year. So I'll go to my 20 year if they do it.
1. Stupid. How can you go about life without touching another human being during the day. What has this world come to?
2. All through school I usually brought lunch, but there were times when I was too lazy to make it, so I had to buy it. Since high school started at 7:30 am, they did offer breakfast. I'd usually get a bagel and tea before my first class.
3. No. The school system in this country needs to be re-vamped, and teachers need to be paid more, not the students. Do children in Japan get paid to go to school? It's just as bad as the healthcare system.
4. No, I've never been to a high school reunion and did not attend my 10th. I have no desire to see any of the people I went to high school with. But, I would definitely go to someone else's high school reunion. I think, after 10 or 20 years, unless you come from a small town where everyone still lives nearby and were close, do you really know those people anymore? Do you care? I don't.
OK, I've posted my answers for this week AND last week at my blog. They're too long for me to repost here.
1.Everyone needs a hug at some point.I don't care if they are young or old, this puts a barbed-wire-fence around all chance of getting kids to share feelings. If you are going to do this, you might as well ban eye contact as well and communicating all together. Ok, maybe that is a little extreme, but I hope you get my point.
2.I brought a bag lunch all the way until Junior High. Then I pretty much just bought lunch daily from then on. They did not offer breakfast.
3. This is dumb. It is like giving the families their money back for school registration, along with a bonus. Why should you have to pay people to want to succeed. Dumb.
4. I have never been to a high school reunion, I only graduated in 1999, so my ten year is coming up. I don't really care to go. I hated my High School.
1. Hands Off: I'm with the general consensus here. It's ridiculous and we all know why.
2. School Lunch: My family was poor enough when I was growing up that we qualified for discounted lunches (worked out to $0.40 per meal). I always bought school lunch until I turned 16, then I started eating out for $3/meal.
3. Paying for Performance: The only reason I have one whit of responsibility in me is because of my parents. Hate to say it, but in many parts of this country parental motivation just isn't going to change. The kids need something else to motivate them to break "the cycle" because unlike Japan, they certainly aren't worried about dishonoring their family name. It may work, it may not, but at least somebody is trying to do something.
4. High School Reunions: At 5 years, I was a complete disgrace. At 10 years, little had improved. 2012 is 20 years... not looking good. At this point I would need to single-handedly unite the world in peace and harmony to make up for all my screw ups. Maybe I can do it. We'll see...
1. I remember playing tackle football during recess in elementary school... it was against the rules, but as long as no one complained of injuries, we know no one would stop us. Its just a shame what we've come to.
2. I had a bag lunch, a full grocery bag by high school, 4 days a week, and pizza money for fridays. My high school had a 'snack booth' that was open before school where you could buy bagels, but no cafeteria style breakfast.
3. Considering the NYC program is a pilot, and only a limited number of families have been qualified to take part, it'll be interesting to see what the results are. It seems like all that money might be sufficient to pay more for teachers or to get more teachers, but that kind of option still doesn't necessarily get the student's attention. The other key thing is that the payments are coming from a private fund raised by the mayor, so no taxes are going into this at the present. That being the case, I think its no different than the scholarships that are only offered to low opportunity students at colleges and universities, and its a great thing.
4. I'm in Jake's boat on the time line, but I enjoyed high school. The people I was closest to, I have kept in touch with, but even so I think it would be interesting to go to at least one of my high school reunions in the future.
Q1: This just seems kind of ridiculous. There should be limits on contact, but please, a high-five? Good luck enforcing that one Fairfax County. What happens when they start hugging trees? Gasp!
Q2: In high school I usually went home for lunch or to a cousin's house nearby. The cafeteria was pretty much a joke. I'm not exaggerating much when I say that I think they just reheated the same food day after day until it finally imploded.
Q3: I think if it works, it is a good thing. It would be nice to see that taken even further to offer college incentives as well.
Q4: No, never been to one. I've never been invited. I'm still a young-un I suppose.
1: Very stupid, and I even got punched in the nose when I was at school, twice! And how do they expect to enforce that? If kids are giving each high fives and don't stop, what is the teacher going to do, cause they sure can't touch them!
2: Hot, homeade school lunch everyday! I miss it too, cause it was good. In fact, so good that all through high school I served lunch everyday just so I could get seconds!
3: I think this is GREAT! Stop handing out cash to welfare cases and start giving it to someone willing to "work" for their handout. In other words, stop giving it to the fat guy with his shirt off who sits on his porch all day and give it to the poverty stricken kids who make it an effort to go to school. I think this could really help them in the long run to go on for higher education and make something out of their lives.
4: Haven't been cause there hasn't been one yet. I only graduated 7 years ago, so I've got a few years to loose some weight and get into med school before I go.
q1: ridiculous
q2: i bought lunch at the cafeteria (well my parents bought if for me)
q3: interesting...i think the encouragement for participation is good. encouragement for performance could proof problematic. i could see bad parents beating their kids because they hadn't scored high enough on a test, so the parents aren't going to get their $600. and i think a better idea for the rewards would be to give them scholarships/grants to higher education or business ventures.
q4: been to my wifes 5 year. lame.
1 - Why would we instill a fear of touching someone in children? Sounds ass backwards to me.
2 - No breakfast. Never brought a lunch to school. I just beat up the AV cart pushers in high school for my funding.
3 - Isn't the reward of increasing your future opportunities and the self satisfaction of gaining knowledge enough these days?
4 - I was never invitited to my 10 year. I think the reunion organizer was an AV cart pusher...
A1) That is the most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard. How is hugging a negative thing. It is a proven fact, that if children and babies do not have human contact, that they can die. People will serve in Orphanages in Romania and other countries for the sole purpose of holding the babies. Hugs are an expression of gratitude, hugs can be a way to express love, and friendship, to console and comfort in times of need. To deprive children of the ability to express emotion, or to train them that human contact is wrong, is only going to hurt them in the long run.
A2) Haha! Bergie and I were jsut talking about that. I always had a 'hot' lunch. I always wanted to bring a cold lunch with cool snacks and stuff.
A3) Well I can see that this a good rewarder, but one should not be rewarded for being excellent, or living above their potential. Self gratification is reward enough. And to reward parents for actually taking an interest in their child's life...what is that all about. These kids will grow up with the idea that if their professors, or employers or spouse wants them to excel at something, that there better be a 'reward'. And what were scholarships designed for...to assist students to persue an education and actually assist those who are serious about it.
A4) I have never been to a high school reunion, and I am not sure that it would be all that exciting. There were a whole 56 in my class, they are not hard to keep tabs on.
Q1 - Hands Off: I feel that many policies are in place simply to give authorities something to enforce if someone crosses the line. I'm thinking that maybe they created this policy so that if some student was inappropriately touching other students, they wouldn't have to prove what "inappropriate" means. They would have more power to enforce and more license not to enforce the rule.
Q2 - School Lunch: In my early years of grammar school, everyone went home for lunch. (Shows you how old I am.) A few year later, maybe third or fourth grade, we were all brown-bagging it. We had no cafeteria, and we ate in our classroom. In high school, we had a cafeteria where I often ate a breakfast of doughnuts and chocolate milk, but I brown-bagged lunch.
Q3 - Paying for Performance: This is dopey. Learning is an intrinsic good, and we need to establish that value in our society. I think people should be able to freely choose whether or not they go to school and should not be graded. The incentive would be--get an education or work in a factory... if you can find a factory job. We try to hard to provide a formal education for everyone. Let the kids and parents who want it most strive to make the experience valuable.
Q4 - High School Reunions: I went and hung out with the same ten people who were my closest friends. It was pleasant, but I hadn't kept in touch with them, so it felt a bit distant. Sometimes I feel as though I've lived 5 or 6 different lives. I look back at that time in high school as though I'm watching a movie about some other person. I probably won't attend another one.
Hands Off: Interesting that you ask this question. A few days ago I watched a movie called "Equiliibrium". It was a post apocalyptic movie where, in order to prevent a world war 4, they outlawed all emotion. They required everyone to take a drug that supressed emotion also. Anyway, in that movie there was a women who asked, paraphrasing, if we cannot feel are we really alive? This law seems like we are heading down that road. Pretty silly if you ask me. I think that public schooling is where children learn social skills. If you take away social interaction, such as hugging, high-fiving and hand shaking, might as well teach them at home and have them take lessons over the internet.
School Lunch: I bought my lunch most of the time. I was too lazy to make my lunch before school.
Paying for Performance: Either my tax money goes to welfare or incentives. At least with the incentives they are getting an education.
High School Reunions: I have never been to a High School Reunion. All of my friends from school still live around here. Those are the only people that I really care about. Although I guess it would be cool to see all of the old teachers if they attended.
1. Hugging...yes please!
2. You can only eat so many PBJ's...bought it.
3. The all mighty $$. What happened to the joy of learning?
4. NEVER! Why do I want to go spend time with a bunch of chubby &/or bald people?!
1. HUGGING: A no-touching policy, IMHO, is stupid, ridiculous, counter-intuitive, and, ultimately, will be counterproductive. Who ARE these people? And what are they thinking?
2. SCHOOL LUNCHES: Our family was too poor to make and send sack lunches for us 6 children, so I had no real choice but to eat the school lunches everyday, courtesy of taxpayers and the federal school lunch program. None of my schools in Missouri offered breakfast in the 70's and 80's. We moved to Pensacola, FL for my 8th grade year and all the schools offered breakfast there. Again, we ate breakfast at school, free, because we were too poor to afford it.
3. CASH INCENTIVES: I am not opposed to cash incentives for school performance and parental involvement, but I *am* disheartened by the development of an environment in which this is a seriously-considered strategy to get kids to come to school and to learn. While it may seem to favor the less fortunate, it probably will do nothing to change social structures or opporunities in any real way.
4. HIGH SCHOOL REUNIONS: I have not been to a high school reunion. I registered for my 10th, but last-minute business travel precluded my attendance. I look forward to my next one.
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