Recently a parent of a high school student commented to me about a visit to Woodstock High School. How many parents take the time these days to visit their child’s school and become aware of the atmosphere in and around the school? Those comments included "intimidated; uneasy; gangs; no dress code; bling."
What has been your experience recently at Woodstock High School?
Earlier this week I drove past the high school just before the last bell. On Putnam Street a gang of kids was congregated near one of the doors. When I say a “gang”, that’s just what it appeared to be. There were 10-15 teenagers just hanging around on the steps and sidewalk. Black attire, punk hair styles, scrawny-looking. Bikes on the sidewalks and steps.
I wondered why they were outside looking in, when (from their ages) they should have been on the inside, looking out.
Schools are to be safe, positive learning environments. If you don’t have business on school grounds, you stay off.
There should be no groups (of any nationality) roaming the hallways or blocking the passage of anyone - student, staff, teacher, parent or visitor. Display of respect and good manners should be a given.
Kids today don’t learn these things at home, so the schools are forced to become alter-parents.
A few years ago I talked with a woman whose 100-year-old mother had been a teacher in Mississippi and was honored there for her 40-year teaching career. She said that, when the principal walked onto the stage, the auditorium was so quiet you could hear cotton drop. Now, that's quiet!
What happens at Woodstock High School when the principal walks onto the stage? Does everyone quickly stop talking and pay attention to him?
You never know who is interested…
3 months ago
10 comments:
Well, I happen to know that it is OPTIONAL to stand up during the pledge of allegance at the high school. As for the dress code, WHAT dress code! Kids with their pants around their butts, showing off their boxers since tighty whiteys are OUT of fashion. My child is a junior this year, and is getting more and more obstinant with each passing day. Wanna know yet ANOTHER kicker about our WONDERFUL school system? Most of the teachers are too lazy to teach the kids so they give them internet assignments and a crapload of homework every day. This school district is too concerned with hiring staff members for a school that has not even been fully built yet, wasting our valuable tax dollars doing so. They also like to toss away in the garbage brand new classroom fixtures such as desks, filing cabinets and wardrobes. This was done at Westwood Elementary school about a week before school opened for this school year. Did you also know that the kids in K thru fourth grade are being taught Spanish, and that the parents must fill out a form to have their student placed in an english only classroom? When I went to public schools, we were taught English in ENGLISH not Spanish!
You and I know why it's this way. It's because too many parents have relinquished control of education to the "system" and never tell the district what we want and, as importantly, what we don't want. When parents decide to get re-involved and demand meaningful parent-teacher associations (not just for fund-raisers) and demand accountability for their teaching practices and "small" things like a dress code and compliance with it, then and only then will the tide begin to turn.
Elect responsive people to the School Board. Adopt term limits for the School Board. When I tried to contact a Board member last year to discuss a serious problem, the board member refused to meet with me.
Attitudes should be parked at the curb by both students and staff. Schools should again become learning institutions. Teachers and administration should be top role models.
And those baggy, low-riding pants? Call the kid in and tie up his pants with a length of brightly-colored rope; make him wear his shirt tucked into his pants, so that the rope shows all day.
Gee Gus, I take it you don't have kids. It's pretty easy for you to make assumptions about our youth. It's people like you that bring sterotypes into our world. Give them a break. Most kids are doing a great job and shouldn't be judged by people like you.
Yes, most kids are doing a great job.
And it takes just a few bad apples, like the gang loitering outside WHS last week and the punks on the Square in front of the movie theater, to give a lot a kids an undeserved bad name.
No, I think it was you who gave them the undeserved bad name.
Dress code?? Boy-butt-cracks are bad enough, but much worse: has anyone noticed all of the Britney-wannabes at WHS?? Low cut tanks, exposed lace bras, very-short-shorts, etc.? Seriously, do these young women have any dress code whatsoever to be held accountable to?? What kind of perverted teachers permit this???
Teachers? What kind of PARENTS allow this? The kind that like to be called "grandma and grandpa".
Is WHS becoming the training ground for loservillians? I am glad my children will not have to attend such a high school. Where there are gangs there are drugs, alcohol and STDs!!
What is your alternative? The local semi-private high school has all the same stuff and the gangs are replaced with ill tempered mobs of parents at their sporting events.
There's more than one Woodstock in the nation - it'd be helpful, if you're going to gripe about Woodstock High, to specify which one you're upset with.
As to the complaints, well . . . My daughter goes to Woodstock High here in Georgia, and she's 16, and obstinacy has never been a problem with her. She's polite and respectful, doing great in school, and her mom and I are terribly proud of her.
Our secret? We don't get involved in power struggles with her. We're her parents, for goodness' sake - there's no need for us to prove we have either the power or the authority to enforce our will. So we don't fight with her about the inconsequential things, and when we disagree, we don't raise our voices.
The kids' fashions and taste in music and entertainment is sometimes disappointing, but my generation certainly upset my mom's generation as well - now the Beatles and the Rolling Stones are considered classical music!
Don't sweat the small stuff - let your children know you love them and always will, and that you're always there for them. It'll be all too soon before you see them rarely, and you'll wish you could get back that time you wasted screaming and yelling at each other, doing something more productive, more loving, with that time . . .
Post a Comment