Life
by GinafishJust a small update on life. School will start in a month. I haven’t told the kids yet, I can deal with a few days of whining but not a months worth. I’m ready for the school year to start so I can start back to work, but not anxious because the kids schedule becomes so rigid once it starts. I feel so sorry for them when they have to wake up at 5:30 a.m., get on the bus by 6:30 a.m., sit still at school until 3 p.m., ride a bus home and jump off at 4 p.m., then do their home work, take baths starting at 5 p.m., eat dinner at 6 p.m., then in bed by 7:30 p.m. All in all, it ends up to be about an hour of free time per school day. 
After five days a week, the toll of not having enough free time wears them out and their tempers are shorter.
I come from a family of teachers. Yesterday, there were three sisters and myself talking about the school year. In Texas, there was a law that allowed schools to chose their own calendar for a while, so some of the private schools now go year round. We all agreed that school would work better if it was year round. That sounds hypocritical when I look at the paragraph I wrote before this one.
But here’s how it’d work if the Colvett women had their way. School would be in nine week spurts, from 10 p.m. - 4 p.m. allowing kids to sleep in later. Studies show that teenagers especially need more sleep than they currently get. After the nine weeks spurt, they would have two to three weeks off for vacations. If the school day itself was shorter, they would be more attentive for each class instead of zoning out for part of the day.
Oh well, just a thought on school.
Yesterday I had a thought as I was driving. What if speed limit signs had an electronic signal signature thingy that zapped the appropriate speed to each car’s computer as it drove by. Each car was equiped with an electronic sensor that would accept the speed and then set the cruise control to that speed. If you had to brake to turn, or to accomadate someone turning, you would still brake like you normally do. Only emergency vehicles would be equiped with a special controler that allowed them to drive over the speed limit. What do you think? Automatic speed cars? No more grannies driving too slow, or teenagers driving too fast? No more rubber necks slowing down to look at accidents on the side of the road? hehe, just watch! 40 years from now and the educational and auto industry will catch up with me on this. Ya think?
You are on to something with the year round school. It doesn’t sound appealing to say it…but I think it would work better. And there would be a lot less regression in aquired skills from the previous grade level…I get burnt out waiting for Christmas break so I’m sure the kiddos do to!
I have always been for year round school because there was only ever a summer break to work on farms and who is doing that now?
the car thing I don’t think will work. People are allowed to go 5 miles below or 5 miles ahead of the speed limit. Some people don’t see as well or have as good of reaction time as others and you want them to go 5 or 10 miles below the speed limit if that’s what they need to do. If they weren’t controling their own cars, accidents will happen. Plus, what about when the rain is coming down in sheets or the road is iced over? There are just too many variables for a system like this. i think instead the interstates should have built in subway systems so groups of people can commute back and forth between large towns. Public travel is the wave of the future. It provides jobs for people and the rest of us save money on cars, insurance, car maintenance, etc. Get on that.