Hey, Craig, school has been pretty good this week.
March 16: On Monday, things were ok. I observed several arguments and two fights but nothing major.
March 17: Happy St Patrick's Day everyone! Anyway, I observed more arguments and heard of some fights. Other than that stuff, just the usual school day.
March 18: On Wednesday, school was good for the most part. The only thing I saw that was eventful for the most part was a fight (well, near fight) in my 2nd period class. Two boys had a heated argument over something that happened yesterday then shoves ensued before it was broken up by the teacher and two other boys. Other than that, I only observed the usual arguments and loudness.
March 19: On Thursday, my class and I went on a field trip to Harlem-Irving Plaza. It was nice. I bet some of you folks are happy, since this is our last trip on a mall, at least for the time being.
March 20: On Friday, things were calm. I didn't observe any arguements or fights. Our program was bursting with "excitement" today, but I won't get into it.
March 23: On Monday, things were calm. Just the usual loudness and arguments.
- Thanks,
Avondale/Logan Square Crime Blotter
13 comments:
Timmy,first let me say that you are a wonderful young man, and that I vastly enjoy your Tuesday posts.
But why are the schools taking our kids on field trips to SHOPPING MALLS? Ask your teachers that sometime.
The better to groom them to be good little consuming Debt Serfs when they grow up?
Do you feel that you took anything away from the mall trip that was of value to you, such as new knowledge of business or retailing?
Are the schools taking you to the museums, and to the Botanical Garden or to the Garfield Park conservatory? Or to classical music concerts?
When I was a high school kid, back in the Paleolithic Age, the St Louis Symphany Orchestra delivered weekday afternoon concerts for kids in the public schools. Attendence was optional, and the cost was extremely cheap. I believe schools in this city had a similar program, though I'm not sure.
Do you get to go to some of the research facilities here, or to Adler?
I mean, I sincerely hope our educators are using field trips as an opportunity to present something of great value not available in the classroom, or to give students "hands on" visceral experience of something difficult to convey by text.
But all too often, educators use these trips as a way to bypass the difficult work of teaching.
We were taken on these trips to shopping mall to learn how to spend money, learn to shop around, learn how to purchase stuff, etc. Trust me, these trips are aboustely not all fun and games. We take quizs and other stuff during these trips for educational purposes.
In fact, one of the aides in class explained to me that they're not allowed to have us go on these trips for all fun and games. There HAS to be an educational purpose behind it, even if we (the kids)dread it (of course I do because I don't like school work, but if I want to learn more, I know I have to do it).
I do not feel as anything was taken away from me on the malls trips.
We took field trips to museumns, the Bontanical Garden, classic music concerts and etc. before March.
We've also taken "smaller" trips to banks, Loyola Park track (to train for a running marathon in May) and other things in Rogers Park.
Just today, we went to the nature center on Pulaski near Peterson. We not only took a nature walk, but we helped the owners (or whatever they are) dig up ground so they can plant new flowers for spring.
My teachers are using these trips to educate us. The teachers I have aren't like other teachers where they just want us to look at stuff and go away. In fact, the teachers I have now seem to be the most decidated to their students I've ever seen. Back in my last 4 years of elementary school, almost all of my teachers could care less about me. I feel greatly appreciated since my teachers are so decidated to us.
I don't quite understand why many people get so upset that we go to malls. We've got to learn, too. We're also people too (this isn't totally directed at you, North Coast).
No one is blaming you for all the field trips Timmy. It's your teachers that are at fault for them.
When I went to Chicago schools way back in the dark ages, we were lucky to get one field trip a year!
The incessant trips you take are an excellent example of the educational bankruptcy of the CPS system.
Especially the ones to malls.
I'm sorry, Timmy, I did not mean to be critical of you.
It's not your fault that your instructors and the people above them who design your courses have their heads and hearts in the wrong place.
It's just that this society is so obsessed with consumerism that the people we pay to do our thinking and instruct our young cannot see past it, or perceive the damage it's done to us as a polity or an economy.
I sincerely hope that you and your classmates are being given instruction in finance, especially as it relates to this society's overwhelming compulsion to buy, buy, buy. I hope they teach you something that most "educated" adults in this country seem not to be able to grasp, like the effects of Compound Interest and the dangers of debt.
It's because you and your classmates are definitely people that it bothers me that yet another emerging generation of youngsters is being inducted into the behaviors and beliefs that have helped destroy our economy and financial system, and I really hope your teachers are using what is happening around us in our banking system and economy as an object lesson in what happens to a polity of 300 million people when they are so financially illiterate that they buy (or borrow)into a manner of life and spending based on make-believe.
Would it be that the generations from mine on down all the way through those born in between mine and yours had been so instructed. However, we were not- we were, instead, brought up on the belief that prosperity was our birthright and that all we had to do was borrow our way to personal financial Nirvana, and that this would trigger "growth" that would guarantee all good things would keep coming to us.
Yours will be the first generation to reach adulthood in the massive economic shift that is now taking place,which is most likely to an economy in which we all have much less money and ability to borrow; and I sincerely wonder if your teachers, so much older than you and brought up with no financial literacy, or self-restraint in matters financial, can offer you the kind of instruction you will need to make it in a much different economy than the ones your elders have lived in for 50 years.
Good luck to you. I'm glad you've had field trips to all the really good places, too.
Sock Pupperter, at my last school, I was also lucky to get trips that often (once or twice a year) as well. However, since we're disabled kids, we need to be out more often (well, I don't, but I just go with the flow most times).
North Coast, I have to give you a slight correction on what you said about our teacher's bosses designing our courses. Personally, I don't think they really approve of us going on all of the trips we've been on.
To tell the complete truth, we're not really allowed to buy stuff at the mall. At the mall trips, we have a paper and we have to write down the prices of stuff and other things related to that, but to me, that's learning how to buy stuff and what have you, and that doesn't seem harmful to me if all we're doing is writing down prices of various stuff.
Let me pose this question out to everyone: What do you all REALLY think we're buying at the malls when we're there?
Besides, don't any of you think we should get out of Sullivan for at least a little while? The kids in my class don't need to be subjected to all of the violence/nonsense in that school because really, we're a complete different program under Sullivan.
If these trips really bother all of you, please, call Dr. Artia, but don't say you heard it from me because I don't want anybody getting mad at me for why I told you all, because if Dr. Atria decides to not allow us on anymore field trips and they find out I had something to do with it, they'll be furious with me and I'm not really looking for that.
They won't hear it from me, Timmy.
I'd rather just press for more courses on economics that include financial instruction. I hear that many schools now offer courses on things like how to handle a checking account and avoid credit card traps. Kids need this instruction more than ever, for credit issuers have been tossing lines of credit for thousands of dollars at teenagers- which never happened when I was a teen.
But I will not be calling your school, or the Board of Ed.
i just think since you're disabled kids, and most likely entering the work force as soon as you're out of high school, that your field trips to the mall should focus more on actually working in a shop than they should in shopping in one. you should be learning how to fold shirts properly, shelve books, answer the phone in a business context, and do office work, because it's nice and all that they're teaching you to shop over and over again (shopping and budgeting being things i think normal kids should learn too), but you're going to have to learn how to actually work to make the money that allows you to shop. living independently is about more than just buying things. i hope that if these trips are meant to help you mainstream into the normal world that you also take trips to office buildings, factories, etcetera and are actually taught about what goes on behind the scenes of those places, because that's where you're going to spend your adult life.
i'm only upset now because i think it was your school bus that was parked in my spot at my dogwalking job (about a block away from harlem-irving) on thursday. oh, well.
Oh Timmy boy, what a shock to the system you will have when you are finished with sweet Sullivan High.
The real world is full of stress. And guess what, we can't leave our jobs to go on a field trip. We can't leave our family responsibilities to go on a field trip.
Hey if the program at Sullivan is so bad, why travel so far everyday? Go to a bad one near your home.
Shock to the system? I won't be shocked. Just a little surprised. Of course the real world is full of stress. I experience it everyday, so I'm fully aware of that. I know I can't leave my job and family responsiblites for a field trip. You're telling me something I've known for a while now. As for school, I sometimes wish I could go to a regular school near home, but my mom won't let me and therefore I have to go to Sullivan.
Eddie, I think we're learning how to do that stuff now. Not totally sure since I'm not in the classroom all day, but from the sound of things, our teachers want us to learn everything. In fact, a few of the kids in my class have a class on job occupations. As for the school bus, was that bus a "Latino Express" bus? And where was it located? Maybe I could see if I could have someone do something for doing that.
North Coast, I think there is an ecomonics class at school, but I'm not too sure about that.
You're a great kid, Timmy, and doing a great job of reporting for Rogers Park. I really think it's great that you've taken this initiative.
I also think it's pretty great that your school provides such a diverse mix of educational field trips in addition to your regular class work.
You just keep on being the great kid that you are!
How about going to the Salvation Army on Devon or Unique Thrift Store at Howard and Western for some compare/contrast experience. It appears that the retail area has been thoroughly covered, I'm looking for an queen size, white or off white chenille bedspread and will not pay $85 at Carson's. I have been to both stores this week.
P.S. Unique has half off on Monday's.
Timmy, does your school offer an old fashioned Home Economics class?
By “old fashioned,” I mean one that teaches kids how to repair their clothes instead of buying them, the importance of choosing fashion classics for a long lasting wardrobe in addition to apropriate choices in the more short term fads. The class would also teach how to stock a pantry; plan nutritious menus based on personal preferences, seasonal ingredients and local sales; and how to go grocery shopping from a list based on those menus and pantry needs. It would also cover how to live on a budget based on actual income rather than credit. Last but not least, it would provide real life lessons on how to keep a clean and organized home free of clutter and debris. All that would be taught along with homework and home visits from the teacher.
We had a class like that at my school but I was raised in the country and it's been a while since I graduated.
I know, ideally, parents should be teaching this to their children at home, just like sex education, ethical living and good citizenship. But, just like those subjects, home training in responsible living is obviously not happening.
So, do they offer a class like the one I described? If they do, is it a popular class and do both boys and girls take it? When I was coming up, only girls took the class because it was considered "a little homemakers class" rather than what it really is, namely a prep course in personal independence and real life. I grew up in a very sexist time in American History but I hope recent changes in social perceptions are present in our schools too.
-PEACE -
Rogerspark60645, I'll sugguest those two places to my teachers so they could take us there :-).
Fargo Woman, our school doesn't offer a class like that, at least not one that I know of anyway.
RogersParking, thanks for the nice comments, as always :-).
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