Where was the Pioneer Press? Are they so busy defending the Bush policies that they can't notice failures in our own back yard?
Where was the School Administration? I don't think the public schools should have to rely exclusively on donations of material like this, but does our local school system even TRY to get donations from citizens?
Last year, we gave shelves full of kids books to good-will, including dozens of Boxcar Children, lots of Poul Anderson science fiction books, and books from the Chronicles of Narnia series. We have also given away many other educational things for kids, like microscopes, prisms, books on dinosaurs, inventors, inventions, space and space flight etc.
These are the kinds of things every kid should have laying around at their own home,but are sadly missing from the environments of many low-achieving kids.
A google search on: Saint Paul Public School Book donation yields no information on attempts to attract public donations..
A couple years ago, I took a small box of useful things to my kids high school. The assistant principle thanked me, but it seemed he had never seen anybody do it before, and wasn't quite sure what to do with it. The material included a box of labelled rock samples that could be useful in a science class, as well as old magazines from immediately after the assassinations of JFK, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy.
I think our local school system could do a much better job of engaging the parents and the community in the schools. When my kids were younger, I went down to offer to volunteer, thinking maybe I could help with something that used some of my own abilities, like helping kids with reading or math or computers. All 'parent volunteer' projects were things like cutting construction paper into 4*5 pieces, collating papers, stuffing envelopes and similar brain dulling tasks. I lasted one afternoon.
At 07:44 AM 11/15/2004, Mike Fratto wrote:
If we have this problem with reading materials, what does this say about math and science materials?
_____________________________________________
To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ____________________________________________
NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul
Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
