Letter to the Editor: Positive reaction to school schedule omitted

May 22, 2009
by Emily Bloom

Dear Editor,

As one of the parents who attended the [May 5 Board of Education] meeting, and the only one who expressed satisfaction with the new schedule and the opportunities it presents for less homework and more time for midday study, reading and instrument practice, I was displeased to see that my positive reaction was omitted from the article. See “Principal Selesnick recommends ‘minor’ changes to Greeley schedule,” NewCastleNOW.org, May 8, 2009.

Many other parents commented, including one who stated that students in her college classes who graduated from Greeley “fail her classes;” odd since the old schedule was still in place when those “failures” were at Greeley.

As a parent who has attempted to reinforce the value of making use of free time in a productive way, and one that enjoys seeing her child spend less time on homework than in the past, I think the new schedule has worked brilliantly. If a student chooses to leave campus during free time and “party” or sneak into his home and “hang out,” perhaps the parents of that child need to address that as a parenting and discipline issue. Greeley does not exist to train children in good uses of free time. It is a facility to educate, not engage in child-rearing. That is something parents have to do all by themselves.

Emily Bloom

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