Posted by The Optimist on January 12, 2011, 1:14 pm, in reply to "Curious about schools"
I understand and somewhat agree with your worries and curiousity about these issues. As far as the iPod listening in study hall...I know that there are some study halls in the hs that give the students opportunities that not everyone has (mostly because they've earned it). These include NHS, Student Council, Renaissance, and other organizations. On days when they aren't doing projects, they often talk and do what they want. As far as regular study halls...students often times have to be silent. Like you and some others said, it's mainly up to the individual teacher. To me, if a student stays silent and listens to his/her iPod and it's not a huge distraction to the class, I don't see the hurt. If he/she doesn't get their work done in study hall, it's not the teachers problem nor is it the school's problem. The kid needs to be responsible for his/her actions or lack thereof.
An assignment researching the lyrics of a rap-artist or J-Lo is perfectly fine so long as it benefits them academically. Trust me, I'm not a fan of rap by far but it is an artform nonetheless. It's not different then reading Shakespeare or making a song in Spanish class to remember grammatical rules. **Again, so long as it as educational value, I have no problem with learning other cultures without reading textbooks.
PE: My experience is that students in high school must dress and participate to recieve full points. If the student is in basketball, for instance, and doesn't want to play a certain day, they can walk the gym with a partner or whatever. That being said, it's completely up to the teacher on how points are awarded. I agree that there needs to be consistency in the district. Some of the activities that kids have come home to tell me aren't typical gym activities. Not sure how we can get around this though until parents go and sit in every gym class to approve or disapprove which isn't going to happen and probably shouldn't.
Obesity: The school gives students one meal (sometimes two if they eat breakfast there) in a day. The school also grants 1 hour for non-typical classes (i.e. PE or exploratory). Considering this, it's the parents responsibility to ensure a child is not obese. I feel like you can only blame the school so much...we need to take some/most of the responsibility for our kid's appearance, academic performance, and behaviors.