Tuesday, November 24, 2015
# 5 Concerns about the proposed elementary school
Concerns about the proposed elementary school *
5) On South Road especially, but also on Wellington Road, the large school would pose a significant hazard to residents trying to pull out of their driveways, and make it almost impossible for customers to stop at, or pull out of parking at the Templeton Country Store and other businesses.
* from 11/9/15 town meeting handout .
And yes, once again the children of Templeton Center get cheated out of a place to play. It does not look like much, but the skate board park has kept a lot of kids busy over the years. It was at one of my first town meetings that I stood up to try to convince the elders of our town to vote to put the tennis court in Templeton Center. Although it has been used for more than tennis as a rule, over the years, it has been used. A place for kids to play in the sight of the Police Department, who could ask for more ? I went to watch my nephew Jon. race in Fitchburg Sunday morning. There were some grammar school age kids in the crowd. All they did was run around chasing each other, having fun, being kids for a couple of hours.. All I could think of was how difficult and unfair it would be, to try to keep these kids inside all day because you did not have the space for them to play on. Teachers can not expect children to "behave," if they have no outlet for them to run off some energy. I understand that there are eight acres where the old Otter River School used to be. Maybe people said no to that sight before, because they felt it was too small, but i'm sure they sure did not ever think anyone would consider using Templeton Center. Bev.
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ReplyDeleteHe Was Square Inside And Brown
ReplyDeleteBarbara Whiteside showed me a poem written by a high school senior in Alton, Illinois,
two weeks before he committed suicide:
He drew... the things inside that needed saying.
Beautiful pictures he kept under his pillow.
When he started school he brought them...
To have along like a friend.
It was funny about school, he sat at a square brown
desk Like all the other square brown desks... and his
room Was a square brown room like all the other
rooms, tight And close and stiff.
He hated to hold the pencil and chalk, his arms stiff
His feet flat on the floor, stiff, the teacher watching
And watching. She told him to wear a tie like
All the other boys, he said he didn't like them.
She said it didn't matter what he liked. After that the
class drew.
He drew all yellow. It was the way he felt about
Morning. The Teacher came and smiled, "What's
this?
Why don't you draw something like Ken's
drawing?"
After that his mother bought him a tie, and he
always Drew airplanes and rocketships like
everyone else.
He was square inside and brown and his hands were
stiff. The things inside that needed saying didn't
need it
Anymore, they had stopped pushing... crushed, stiff
Like everything else.
After I spoke in Nashville, a mother named Debbie pressed a handwritten note on me
which I read on the airplane to Binghamton, New York:
We started to see Brandon flounder in the first grade, hives,
depression, he cried every night after he asked his father,
"Is tomorrow school, too?" In second grade the physical
stress became apparent. The teacher pronounced his
problem Attention Deficit Syndrome. My happy, bouncy
child was now looked at as a medical problem, by us as
well as the school.
A doctor, a psychiatrist, and a school authority all
determined he did have this affliction. Medication was
stressed along with behavior modification. If it was
suspected that Brandon had not been medicated he was sent
home. My square peg needed a bit of whittling to fit their round hole, it seemed.
I cried as I watched my parenting choices stripped away. My ignorance of options
allowed Brandon to be medicated through second grade. The tears and hives continued
another full year until I couldn't stand it. I began to homeschool Brandon. It was his
salvation. No more pills, tears, or hives. He is thriving. He never cries now and does his
work eagerly.
The New Dumbness
How many of us had a kid in school who could not sit still, who could not be silent, who was not like every one else ? How many of us were that child ? Some children can never sit still, but adults want these children to stay inside, when they need to run. Where does the energy go, once they are back in to the building, they call school ?? It is still there ! What does this child do with this energy, building inside him ? Missbehave !!
ReplyDeleteHow many of us had a kid in school who could not sit still, who could not be silent, who was not like every one else ? How many of us were that child ? Some children can never sit still, but adults want these children to stay inside, when they need to run. Where does the energy go, once they are back in to the building, they call school ?? It is still there ! What does this child do with this energy, building inside him ? Missbehave !!
ReplyDelete