Welcome to my regular Friday feature, Worst of the Week. As a white, suburbanite husband and dad of two kids, there’s a lot that can go wrong and this entry is all about how to fix it. I hope you enjoy it!
Last week I blogged about our Elementary school closing. Since that time we parents had a heated discussion this past Tuesday night with the Board of Education, the Superintendent and other officials. Many public comments were made in defense of the school staying open and/or not moving the 4th grade up to Middle School. Also, there were many sad stories from parents of special needs children and having to move them to new surroundings, thus interrupting their very important educational and social development. Mostly there was anger that there was no real specific plan formulated by the Independent Planning Commission to present to the Board and the parents. I attended the meeting with my wife, Patty, and we left with more questions then answers. In short it seems that the Board held the discussion just to please and patronize us parents and they will go ahead with the Planning Commission recommendation anyway.
Last night, Thursday, the Board held another meeting to accept or reject the recommendation that our school and another school will be closed and these students will be integrated into the four Elementary schools that will be remaining open. The passionate comments from parents of our distinct and specifically our school seemed to have work for the time being. The Board will delay the vote for three months thus allowing everybody to acquire the information they need to make a more pragmatic decision.
I feel that this is just delaying the inevitable. I sincerely believe that our school will be closed and Patrick will be attending Middle School next year as a 4th grader and then Erin will be attending a new school next year for 2rd and 3rd grades (Elementary) and then on to the Middle School for 4th.
It has even gotten to the point were Patty and I talked at length about moving out of our district so our kids could have a more well balanced education. This is a last resort, but it’s an option that is quickly moving up the list.
Truly a Worst of the Week in my book.
I do need to know from any of you who have had experience with a 4-8 grade Middle School. What are the pros or cons? I really need as much information as possible. Thank you very much.
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I only have one question before I decide if this would make me mad…Does the 4th grade schedule run like the 8th grade schedule? You know, changing classes, moving around the halls, no recess, etc.
If your answer is no AND the children are totally separate from the 8th graders (never coming into contact with them during school hours) I feel a little better.
If your answer is yes forget it. I’d be looking for a new house somewhere.
Here is the lens I’m looking through: I have a ten y/o boy in 5th. I also have two seven y/o boys in 1st. Within the last couple of years our small town switched from a building for every two grades for the whole town to neighborhood schools…I’m relating to everything you are sharing – except the race thing, it never went there – social class seemed to be our stumbling block.
Issue 1: My 5th grader gets recess in the last 20 minutes of the day. He hates this now and I can’t imagine what it would have been like if he was in 4th grade with no recess. Boys need breaks. They need to run around and act stupid (I typed that with all the love in the world, seriously.) at regular intervals. Going all the way through a school day to get to a 20 minute recess is horrible on boys. (Those with girls please don’t get wound up about that statement. I can’t speak for girls because I don’t have any.)
Issue 2: I know what my 5th grader can teach my 1st graders and this is the kind of stuff your 4th grader will be learn on the bus and in the hall from 8th graders. The topics of learning may be different but the age difference is about right. At 4th grade boys still think girls are yucky. I’m not really sure what boys think about girls in 8th grade but I’m pretty darn sure “yucky” isn’t it. Have you seen the stuff most girls wear in public now days? If that thought doesn’t get you then consider the behaviors modeled by the average 8th grader when hanging with a group of friends. Definitely not how I want my 5th grader to be acting when he is in 5th…let alone 4th. For both of these you may be thinking – my kids are good kids, they’d never do “stuff” like that. True. But who wants their kids exposed on a daily basis to older kids, a majority of which are not brought up with YOUR values?
Remember when you were in grade school? I know things change and things change and things change. A lot of things don’t change at all. Our kids are growing up so fast now days why do we need the school system to accelerate that even more? When I was in grade school THROUGH 6th GRADE we had two recesses a day – one smack after lunch and one later in the afternoon. The only time we didn’t was when it was raining or the wind chill was some ridiculously low number. I remember one time when we couldn’t have recess our class still bundled up and ran around the building once because we were driving our teacher crazy!
I guess I’m just glad it isn’t me having to make the decision. Besides – moving stinks.
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I only have one question before I decide if this would make me mad…Does the 4th grade schedule run like the 8th grade schedule? You know, changing classes, moving around the halls, no recess, etc.
If your answer is no AND the children are totally separate from the 8th graders (never coming into contact with them during school hours) I feel a little better.
If your answer is yes forget it. I’d be looking for a new house somewhere.
Here is the lens I’m looking through: I have a ten y/o boy in 5th. I also have two seven y/o boys in 1st. Within the last couple of years our small town switched from a building for every two grades for the whole town to neighborhood schools…I’m relating to everything you are sharing – except the race thing, it never went there – social class seemed to be our stumbling block.
Issue 1: My 5th grader gets recess in the last 20 minutes of the day. He hates this now and I can’t imagine what it would have been like if he was in 4th grade with no recess. Boys need breaks. They need to run around and act stupid (I typed that with all the love in the world, seriously.) at regular intervals. Going all the way through a school day to get to a 20 minute recess is horrible on boys. (Those with girls please don’t get wound up about that statement. I can’t speak for girls because I don’t have any.)
Issue 2: I know what my 5th grader can teach my 1st graders and this is the kind of stuff your 4th grader will be learn on the bus and in the hall from 8th graders. The topics of learning may be different but the age difference is about right. At 4th grade boys still think girls are yucky. I’m not really sure what boys think about girls in 8th grade but I’m pretty darn sure “yucky” isn’t it. Have you seen the stuff most girls wear in public now days? If that thought doesn’t get you then consider the behaviors modeled by the average 8th grader when hanging with a group of friends. Definitely not how I want my 5th grader to be acting when he is in 5th…let alone 4th. For both of these you may be thinking – my kids are good kids, they’d never do “stuff” like that. True. But who wants their kids exposed on a daily basis to older kids, a majority of which are not brought up with YOUR values?
Remember when you were in grade school? I know things change and things change and things change. A lot of things don’t change at all. Our kids are growing up so fast now days why do we need the school system to accelerate that even more? When I was in grade school THROUGH 6th GRADE we had two recesses a day – one smack after lunch and one later in the afternoon. The only time we didn’t was when it was raining or the wind chill was some ridiculously low number. I remember one time when we couldn’t have recess our class still bundled up and ran around the building once because we were driving our teacher crazy!
I guess I’m just glad it isn’t me having to make the decision. Besides – moving stinks.
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Chris, I know this was a long time ago and is no longer on your concern list but if anybody else reads this and want’s an opinion I’ll offer my 2 cents. I haven’t had an experience like this with my kids yet, my oldest is six, but I did go to a middle school that was a 4-8 and I attended the 4th grade the first year it was part of the middle school. I never had a problem in the 4th grade. The one thing our school district did was keep a separate bus schedule for the the 4th graders. I think we actually started school later and ended later. I’m pretty sure the did away with that after a few years but it did ease parent concerns. My personal experience is that the merging had no effect on me.
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Chris, I know this was a long time ago and is no longer on your concern list but if anybody else reads this and want's an opinion I'll offer my 2 cents. I haven't had an experience like this with my kids yet, my oldest is six, but I did go to a middle school that was a 4-8 and I attended the 4th grade the first year it was part of the middle school. I never had a problem in the 4th grade. The one thing our school district did was keep a separate bus schedule for the the 4th graders. I think we actually started school later and ended later. I'm pretty sure the did away with that after a few years but it did ease parent concerns. My personal experience is that the merging had no effect on me.
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Chris, I know this was a long time ago and is no longer on your concern list but if anybody else reads this and want's an opinion I'll offer my 2 cents. I haven't had an experience like this with my kids yet, my oldest is six, but I did go to a middle school that was a 4-8 and I attended the 4th grade the first year it was part of the middle school. I never had a problem in the 4th grade. The one thing our school district did was keep a separate bus schedule for the the 4th graders. I think we actually started school later and ended later. I'm pretty sure the did away with that after a few years but it did ease parent concerns. My personal experience is that the merging had no effect on me.
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Chris, I know this was a long time ago and is no longer on your concern list but if anybody else reads this and want's an opinion I'll offer my 2 cents. I haven't had an experience like this with my kids yet, my oldest is six, but I did go to a middle school that was a 4-8 and I attended the 4th grade the first year it was part of the middle school. I never had a problem in the 4th grade. The one thing our school district did was keep a separate bus schedule for the the 4th graders. I think we actually started school later and ended later. I'm pretty sure the did away with that after a few years but it did ease parent concerns. My personal experience is that the merging had no effect on me.
#
Chris, I know this was a long time ago and is no longer on your concern list but if anybody else reads this and want's an opinion I'll offer my 2 cents. I haven't had an experience like this with my kids yet, my oldest is six, but I did go to a middle school that was a 4-8 and I attended the 4th grade the first year it was part of the middle school. I never had a problem in the 4th grade. The one thing our school district did was keep a separate bus schedule for the the 4th graders. I think we actually started school later and ended later. I'm pretty sure the did away with that after a few years but it did ease parent concerns. My personal experience is that the merging had no effect on me.