The Christianville Spirit: The Four Segments of School Funding

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

September 11th, 2019-TCS # 654

So, Before I write about This Week’s Newsletter, I want to wish Everyone a Happy Patriot’s Day (according to The Calendar in My Kitchen, it says, “Patriot’s Day.”) Never Forget What Happened that That Day, 18 Years Ago, Can You believe that?! 18 Years! and If You see a Fireman or Police Officer Today, Thank them for all their Service! Thank You Fire and Police for Your Service in America Today and on That Day from The Christianville Spirit! So, with that said, We move on to This Week’s Newsletter. So, My Mom and I often have The Best Conversations when We least expect it! Sometimes, It comes when We are having a Rough Time with Something and Other Times, It comes from Talking about One Thing that leads to Another, that leads Another. Among Them, We talked about What People Perceive as Normal and Funding of Segments of The School System. I probably write on that one later, but This Week, We are going to Talk about The School System, an Often Oh-So-Sensitive Politically Un-Necessary Conversations. But, I feel that It needs to be Addressed. Now, Baring in Mind, that People have Opinions about Which of These is more Priority and Honestly, in Some Ways, They are all Important. However, Schools only have so much Money from Regional Taxes and other means like Fund Raising, commonly referred to as The PTA. The Segments of Funding go as Sports (Football, Baseball, Soccer, and Basketball. Go Jags, Ravens, and Tigers!); The Next is The Most Important One, Academics (in Other Words, School itself. Math, Science, Social Studies, to Name a Few); Then There is The Fine Arts (Meaning Art of All Kinds and Music); and, finally, Special Ed (In other words, Those with Special Needs. of All Kinds!) So, Let’s Touch on all of Them.

So, Sports.. Sports is The Thing that is Argued that They should fund the Most in School outside of Academics and Truth be told, They do. It does make People move and It makes the Students proud of Their School besides Well, School. Personally though, It make sense to let Students move a bit while doing Academics because A lot of Students learn differently. Some like to Move and others like Silence, truth be told if all students were to move about in a Quiet and Mannered Way while the Teacher is Teaching, that would be Awesome. However, In My Humble Opinion, Sports should be Funded on It’s Own and A lot of Local Sports Teams have The Power to do so. I mean, The Cost of Tickets and Food at a Game is enough to Fund the Team. Plus, Everyone would love a Team fundraiser, right? The Prouder You are of The Team and The School, The More Money they get. And, Come to Think of It, It is quite The Economics lesson too!

Academics..In my Mind, That is just a Fancy Word for School. The Everyday, Having Tons of Homework, Learning Some (Keyword here Some) Useless Subjects. Subjects like Math, Reading, and Writing are The Core Subjects, in other words, The Most Important Ones! Now, Algebra and Higher, to the Average Student anyway, is not Useful in Life. Unless, You want to be a Scientist or a Profession that requires that. In Which, that is More College kind of Stuff.  Now, It would help to have Subjects in School, that like the Core Subjects, would be Useful in Life. Like How to budget your money, change a tire, How to Handle Emotional Challenges, and Community Involvement Skills (being a pert of the community and helping others). A Note, Please Make a Subject like History, a lot more Exciting. History is more than Just Dates, It is also Stories. History and Geography, and Yes, even Politics all mix together in a lot of Ways! Like I said before about The Students Moving, that would help a ton with Helping those who Learn in a Different Way. In Terms of Funding, You are Fine because You are The Parent, the Master, if You will of This Show. This Show can not survive without You!

And, Next is another Oh-So-Sensitive Opinion, The Fine Arts. Now, When I was in School, Yes, It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to Make or Create but, Looking Back on it, I really liked Art Class and Most Importantly My Brother loved Art Class. So, If You are like me, You would know that Art covers Everything from Ceramics, Sculpture, Painting, and Of Course, Music. I think that if Students could do Art and Let Their Creativity Fly, It really could help them in Their Emotional Output. Now, I could argue too that Yes, When It comes to becoming a Real Artist or a Musician, It is a Dog-Eat-Dog World out there! There are only so many Artists in The World and In Music, There are only So Many Keys on a Keyboard, eventually Music starts to Sound The Same and That is Where You could get into Trouble. But, Music, or actually Songs, are basically Poems with Music. In Case of Funding, I think that You should be Funded after Academics. Now, You can also Fundraise and Have Music Festivals where You can Showcase The Best Artist in All Kinds! Perfect Idea!

And Then Finally, Something I know personally.......

 Special Ed. So, A Thing that Most People do not understand about having Special Needs is really, What Type of Special Needs are We talking about. And, No I don’t mean Your Syndrome, that is just a Label. I feel that There are 3 Sub-Categories for Those with Special Needs and in Context of Where to put them and Most Importantly, How to not divide them too much that it blows the School Budget. Oh The Complication! So, The There are schools that like to Categorize kids with Special Needs. Some just put all into one room and not help them. Categories, There are Those that have Special Needs but are Very Smart, have some delays that they Struggle with, Considered High Functioning, and Intellectual Abilities in areas that are different (like me, Maps and Geography). Those who are Mild, I like to call us. Those of Us that have a Good Potential in Life, In Our own way, and Given a Chance to Learn. As a PTLSer, I Think, It is better to group us with These People and Give Us a chance. Then, We go into The Hardest Parts, The “Mids”. They are Very Smart but, have a Few Behaviors, or They have a More Behaviors and have some Challenges Intellectually. In My Humble Opinion, The Schools Focus too much on The Diagnosis and Thinking that The Child won’t be Successful to make it into Life, Get put Here, which again in My Humble Opinion, Is not Fair! Because They have a lot of Potential and If They mimic The Behavior of those that are More Intellectual Disabilities, You and They will have a Problem because the learning has to fit Each Child. and, Finally, We move into The Severe Category. The Ones who have A Lot of Behavior Issues, more severe Physical Difficulties, or Have Severe problems understanding. They Have more Struggles with Intellectual and in terms of Life Skills (which I saw in my own classrooms When I was in School), They will more than Likely be at Home a lot of Their Lives.  When I was in School, I was in these classes and It was Not Helping Me Learn Enough, until I was In a Class with Teachers who saw I could learn more. It really is a Harsh Reality and a Sad Reality, but It is Truth. Now, Some Schools do a Good Job in Separating the Kids. Milds here, Mids There, and Severe There. More often than Not, though The Milds are Here but, The Higher Intellectuals of The Mids go with them. and, The Lower Mids go with The Severe’s. Or God Help You, All of The Mid go with The Milds and Severe only with The Severe. The Segregation and the Lack of Integration can be Messed Up. It does not matter where You are in Your Ability to Learn, Funding is Needed in The Special Ed Classrooms, so Each Child can Reach Their Potential in Learning, We deserve a Chance to Learn! All in all, All Children can benefit from Fine Arts, All Children deserve to Learn in Their Own Way and All of This needs Funding! Maybe The School System should re-think in What Segments The Money goes.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Respect How People Learn!