1. A great read about getting to school. We have done stories about carpools and the distance traveled by students, but what other angles could we take on this? Are there MA parents that share the fear mentioned in the piece? Might this fear play a role in parents not letting students drive themselves?
2. Maybe it's too late to do a look at the first day of school this year, but what other story ideas could you take from this read about New Yorkers heading back to school? We did a day in the life of Travis, a day in the life of an unplugged student, what about a simple day in the life of a regular student?? an athlete? a dancer? a musician?
share your comments, ideas, brilliance ...
17 comments:
GETTING TO SCHOOL: This issue is one that seems to affect more kids in elementary and middle school, than it does in a high school situation. MA provides transportation for those who do not live close, and for those who do, usually there are carpools or parents can drive them. And, by junior year, most students can drive themselves to school anyway. It's unfortunate that this has become so much more of an issue than it used to be. Even though, we live in a very affluent part of the country, abduction and other crimes have become much more common. Although I don't think the Jaycee Dugard case will have an effect on MA students getting to and from school, I think the key to safety in other schools is making sure the school provides safe transportation that is just for the school and not public transportation. Parents should be able to check in with kids to make sure they got to school through the use of a cell phone or an e-mail from the teacher etc.
NY GOES BACK TO SCHOOL: I was amazed to hear that public schools have to turn down applicants for kindergarten as it seems that education needs to be available for everyone. It makes me wonder if this is also happening in our area with schools such as Davidson, which MA works with thru crossroads. I like the idea of this article, which followed different people on the first day of school, however it seemed a little disjointed. I think if we were to do an article, it might cover a freshmen, sophomore,junior, and a senior. Each grade representative would have a different main interest, for example, one musician, one athlete etc. if we haven't already covered the freshmen, it could follow 4 freshmen w/ different interests...
First Day Of School: I found this article to be very frustrating. It relates to what we were just talking about in U.S. History. Our country is supposed to be built on the idea that "all men are created equal" and on that ideal it seems that students - across the country - should be able to receive comparable educations. This article demonstrates that this is not the case. Another article we read in history "Savage Inequalities" looked more closely at the school system in East St. Louis. Both schools, especially in comparison to MA, are unimaginable. Articles like these make me question our country as one that every person can succeed in because without a proper education it is incredibly hard to become successful. While I hope that we all appreciate our educations here, I hope that we can find a way to balance the system and at least lessen the difference between the different environments kids across the U.S. are expected to learn in.
Getting to School:
Like Olivia said the issue seems to be more evident amongst elementary/middle school kids, but I think it would be interesting to delve into this as a high-school issue as I'm sure it affects a few MA students. It might not affect kids who drive to school as much as they are safe in their own cars, and the only fear that could come from that is getting into an accident. But there are definitely a fair share of students who walk and/or ride their bikes to school and it might be interesting to get their parents view on the subject; especially since our school is located in downtown San Rafael. We could also cover different distances traveled by MA students to get to school because some kids drive from Sonoma every morning, and then some kids walk 1 or 2 miles to get to school. A contrast on that could be interesting.
First Day of School:
Of all things that are cut-back due to our economic state, the lower education funds are among the most frustrating. All kids should get the opportunity to learn no matter what race, or economic background they have. Also, the hassle of schools spontaneously switching locations due to building rents increasing, etc. is terrible, especially when the students are not informed at the right time. This reminds me of what happened to MSAT high school in Novato 2 years ago. If we did a piece about this, we could combine it with the first issue and profile a student who maybe travels a long distance to school and has unique interests.
Getting to school:
As far as the writing style of the piece, the writer uses personal and individual examples to invoke a similiar sense of fear in the readers that the parents feel. By using a unique writing style and real names and stories, the writer lures the reader into caring about these unknown kids and their safety. on to the content:
With stories about the abducted girl returning after 18 years, and the constant reminder to parents that their kids are wanted by criminals and psychos, it is no surprise to hear that parents are driving their students to schools two blocks away. What struck me about this article was the idea that ALL parents feel this empty feeling when they let their child out of the house alone, but not every parent has the option to drive their child to school. Whether it be work, illness, or any other circumstance, parents are not always available to hold their child's hand 24 hours/day. In terms of the parents that can drive their students to school, in my opinion, it is a parent's obligation to ensure their child's safety. Although it seems absurd to drive a child to school only two black away, but if the child of someone is kidnapped, they will be haunted by the day that they let their child into the streets alone. Whether it is an affluent community, or a notoriously dangerous one, a parent should do all in their power to protect their child.
Getting to school:
Like Olivia said, although MA offers transportation to kids who live farther away from MA (east bay, san francisco), I'm sure that other kids including myself either walk to meet their carpools every day, or even some students walk to school. This article made me realize the lack of concern that we have in our community surrounding child safety in terms of getting to school. It would be interesting to interview Travis or other teachers at MA about the policies that MA has set for transportation, and how responsible the school would be for incidents that happen with school related transportation. It also might be interesting to find out whether or not there has ever been any discussion about changing the policies that are already set to make the MA community a safer environment for students.
First Day of School: I think it is pretty hard to see how someone has a 2.5 hour commute to a school in New York City. The city has a reputation for having everything close together. Even with morning traffic and the fact that no trains hit Staten Island, I find it hard to believe that students have to travel that long each morning.. I find it funny there were not any other high end private schools around. Manhattan should be full of them but he had to go to one in the Bronx.
The first day of school seems pretty hard if all of your friends live near Manhattan and if you have to travel far to go to school.
Getting to School:
I thought this article was very interesting, and I really loved the way the author gave examples which made me see both sides to the argument. When I started reading the article, I thought I was only going to think one way, using my own bias, but as the article went on, I found myself being able to see both sides of the argument. Personally I think that this is absolutely ridiculous. Like Hossain said, parents cannot hold their child's hand every second of the day. I understand that there is a real fear of kidnappers and rapists, but kids need to grow up. If all kids are babied like this, driving five houses down the road, when they get to the real world they are going to have some serious problems. I think that it is perfectly acceptable for a kid to walk to school. I walked home from middle school and my brother walks there now, and it was good exercise, a way to feel independent, and logistically sound because my parents had no other way of getting me home. I think when children are so sheltered, they lose a certain part of themselves which may lead to rebellion later on in life. If they don't get a taste of independence, then they will constantly be at a loss of those kids who are street smart and know how to get on in the world without their mom holding their hand.
FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL:
This article showed me a whole different side of the public school system. I have always assumed that any child can receive an education from the public school in his or her district, but apparently that is not the case. The fact that children have to commute so far to get to school every day because the school in their district is "full", makes me doubt America's public education system. Having gone to private school's in an affluent area all of my life, these issues have always seemed distant to me; yet in reality they are much closer than I choose to believe. It also is very interesting to me the magnitude of different nationalities and languages and backgrounds that can fill only one small classroom. At MA, although we have much more economic and racial diversity compared to other private schools in the Bay Area, in comparison to the public schools that were talked about in this article we have very little.
GETTING TO SCHOOL: This was an article i believe mainly directed to the parents of elementary and middle school children. I think this article tries to convey the issues that children in today's society face and how it is more expected that schools provide methods of transportation and parents have more action over their children. In my opinion this is ridiculous. It seems to be that more and more people in modern society are drastically jumping from being careful to becoming paranoid. Parents worry too much about the risks of their children walking to school, when meanwhile they are overlooking far more dangerous issues. As listed in the article, surroundings affect child abductions. I agree it probably isn't in your best interest to have your child walking out in the streets in downtown Oakland. On the contrary, I don't feel a fear of kidnapping should affect students in rural or suburban areas. The risks are not very high. It is better to take the slight risk in most situations. Parents are not thinking clearly in my opinion. It is probably a far greater risk that your child would get in a car crash then get kidnapped, yet a lot of parents have less worries about their child getting behind the wheel as a rebellious teenager then having them walk prudently three blocks to school.
WHY CAN'T SHE WALK TO SCHOOL?: This article flat out displays that the child kidnapping cases have taken over the lives of parents. First of all, I think a good way to solve the abduction problem, is to have "cross-guards" stationed at various points a couple blocks from the school. Also the parents should just carpool if they feel so unsafe. The statistic that 250,000 children are injured by automobile accidents opposed to 115 child abductions a year proves my point that parents should not be so worried about their children walking to school.
FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL THIS YEAR: I was amazed to hear that kids were already worn out by traveling for hours to get to their school. For example, a teenager has to travel 2 hours from Staten Island to go to a school in Brooklyn. I think we could use this article to write in the Voice by incorporating(like what others said) Davidson students that are in the Crossroads problem. We could interview them, and it would make the MA students more grateful the a bus actually comes to pick them up and they get to and from school on time.
Getting to School: This article demonstrates how one freak accident (the disappearance of Etan Patz) can drive parents to taking extreme precautions to make sure that they always know that their kids get to school safely. Parents driving their kid to school who live a couple miles away is a reasonable cause for parents driving their children. However, for those parents who do not let their children walk a few blocks to get to school are creating more problems than they solving. As the article said driving your kids to school increases “pollution, traffic congestion and childhood obesity, but has also hampered children’s ability to navigate the world.” All these problems could be solved by parents just accepting that these disappearances that occurred close to school are very rare. Also, I think that it should be the school’s responsibility to set up more cross walk guards and other means of surveillance to reduce the risk of kids who live close by being kidnapped, and this in turn would make the parents more comfortable with letting their kids walk to school, reducing the problems of driving them.
jackson wolf: walking to school
As a young child, I never got to experience what it was like to walk to school. Every day, my dad and I drove the five minutes to school. It wasn't that I was overprotected, I simply lived too far away to walk. In middle school, I finally got to walk to school, and it quickly became a pleasant daily ritual. As the article mentioned, it is significant that people live in different situations and different communities. It is another fact that parents can often be overprotective or underprotective of their children. However, in most situations, as the article insinuated, five and six year old kids are not necessarily old enough to walk to school alone. There is a balance that must be struck between freedom and sensibility, and it is clear that such a line is often muddled. Although the fear of parents is often warranted, problems are not usually solved by controlling the environment around the child and cutting off all ties to the community. More must be done by the community as a whole in order to create a safe and secure environment.
I think our angle on "Getting to School" comes from how dependent MA students are on driving to school. It is common place that come junior year, many students think it is their right to drive themselves to school, even when they could easily take the bus or find a carpool. Considering how eco-conscious we usually are, this seems to be an inconsistency with our school tenets. I also think it would be interesting to talk to students who use the Golden Gate buses, since MA does not run buses in Marin. Personally, I walk a few blocks to what used to be Yard Birds, take a bus to the San Anselmo hub, and then walk the 15 minutes or so to my house to get home. I am pretty confident saying there are MA students who can count the number of times they have taken public buses on their hands. Using the bus makes me thankful for the mornings when my mom saves me the hassle and drives me to school, even if that means getting to MA at 7:30am. Occasionally I drive to school as well; all in all this means I utilize a wide variety of transportation means throughout the week. However, I think much of our culture revolves solely on driving, something dangerous for both our physical bodies and the environment.
Getting to school:
I was surprised by the concern expressed in this article about the danger in a child walking or using public transportation simply to get to school every morning, which seems to be a nonissue in our community. I also thought it was frightening that parents were almost more worried about abduction and strangers than traffic, which was proven to be hundreds of times more dangerous. It is too bad that our society has gotten to a point where parents feel that they cannot allow their child to walk a distance of 7 houses without being in danger. Is this an issue of paranoia or of the increasing danger of our world? The author's use of quotes made the situation seem much more real and personal than if he had just described it.
Getting to school:
I was surprised by the concern expressed in this article about the danger in a child walking or using public transportation simply to get to school every morning, which seems to be a nonissue in our community. I also thought it was frightening that parents were almost more worried about abduction and strangers than traffic, which was proven to be hundreds of times more dangerous. It is too bad that our society has gotten to a point where parents feel that they cannot allow their child to walk a distance of 7 houses without being in danger. Is this an issue of paranoia or of the increasing danger of our world? The author's use of quotes made the situation seem much more real and personal than if he had just described it.
First Day of School: This article showed me a different way in which the economic decline is affecting people. I think that it's horrible that some families children either can not go to schools or attend the same schools as their siblings simply because their is not enough room. This is something that the school districts desperately need to take care of, this also shows how school districts need more founding even in times of economic decline. The independent pieces on the different students were very interesting and I think if we did something like that at MA we would find that some of our students are not that much different from those in the article. Like Matthew Sarker, there are many students at who I know have to travel 50 minutes- 1 hour and 15 minutes just to get to school. Also, by interviewing athletes, dancer, and musicians could give insight to how busy different "professions" in the MA community are and they differ from one another, or their similarities.
Also, to add on to my response about Getting to School, I do not think that it really applies to the MA community because a very small number of students actually live within walking distance of school. Also, our students are older than the kids that were getting kidnapped, so our students are not as defenseless.
On Getting To School...
This article left me utterly confused, is the rest of America really so much different than where I live? I mean I understand that Marin is one of the richest counties in the US but is it that much safer than the other suburbs or even rural places like Upstate New York and Columbus Missouri which were mentioned in this article? I can understand the fear that could come from living in a densely populated city or public transit but overall I think parents are being WAAAAY too over protective. The example about the 10 year old son being pulled over for walking a mile to soccer practice really astonished me. Because in my neighborhood, Marinwood a quite middle class suburb, I have certainly walked all around it since I moved here when I was 7. So maybe I live in a unique community, but I believe that by driving kids a tiny distance to school, parents are denying them important lessons about navigating the real world and street smarts.
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