Tuesday, February 24, 2009

What Will Be Left for The Kids To Do??

It's Tuesday, which means it's time for me to give my "Two Cents"....and like always, I want to thank TuTu for giving me the chance to blow off some steam!!
As I mentioned yesterday, I'd like to talk about the budget situation going on in our schools right now. I'm not sure what is happening in your states, but here in Florida, the state legislatures are making big (no, HUGE) budget cuts in our schools next year. Many teachers will lose their jobs and they are going to cut out many extra activities for the kids-- including music, art & sports.

I am so disgusted and upset by this. I mean seriously, how can they take that stuff away from the kids?? As it is now, they are only given P.E and/or recess 3 days a week. Geez, when I was a kid, we had both P.E and recess EVERY day. If they take those activities away, what will be left for the kids to do?? I guarantee we will see a rise in crime being committed by younger kids, we will see more teenage pregnancies and we will see alot of overweight children... Seriously, this is a huge injustice to our children.

These activities also help children make new friends, learn to be social in big groups and learn new skills that could potentially help them receive college scholarships when they would otherwise not be able to go.

We are personally affected by this because CJ is in band, Ethan is into his art and Joseph is an athlete... so what will happen next year or the next?? Cj has been so excited to get to high school so he could play in the marching band.....but guess what, that might not happen. It sucks!!

I'm really not sure how we fix the budget crisis going on in the schools.... I guess we might have to sacrifice smaller classroom sizes or extra field trips. But I certainly think that taking these type of activities away will only cause more problems in the short & long term!!

I guess I am going to jump on the bandwagon and start writing letters to our State Legislatures....and if you are in the state of Florida, please do the same!! We have to stop this from happening to our children!!

5 comments:

Amy said...

Hello,
Thanks for stopping by my page. I think that is so sad that they are cutting back on P.E. and recess. That is just not right. Children need time away from the classroom to play and be a child. Then like you said, meet new people and deal with different things out there on the play ground. That is just sad. I think people who want to take away these types of programs for children should spend a day at the schools and see what it would be like to have them taken away. Great "Two Cents"
Have a wonderful day!

April said...

That sucks. Two things Little Mans school does that pisses me off are that they can not talk at all everyday at lunch. It's a small school (2A) so it's not like there is a ton of kids. It can't get that loud. And, each grade is in the lunch room at different times so it only the 5th grade when he is in there. And, until 4th grade, the boy and girls can not play together at recess! So stupid!

Sarah said...

I would definitely say that the "extras" like field trips should be the first to go before you start cutting PE and the arts. A lot of companies have started offering to come to the site for "field trips" that are just as interactive and inspirational at a third of the price. There is a way to do it all but folks have to think outside the box. The other option is to just give up on our future now and neglect the schools entirely.

♥ Kathy said...

I totally agree with every word you said! Here in our part of Texas several schools have been shut down because there was no money for them. They claim the taking away of the art programs, music programs and athletics are to save money so those schools won't have to be shut down too. I say find a different way to cut that budget! Our kids need (and benefit from) art, music and athletics. I'll be so upset to see them gone.

TuTu's Bliss said...

I can relate. My husband and I have considered living off spam and top ramen to afford private school for this very reason. I think kids learn the MOST during unstructured FREE play. Public education has decided to focus on memorization skills over learning. It is very sad.