Remarks and observations by Jackie Fields:
One of my past students is now at the Lima High School and he spoke. It was really neat. He told how his test scores were very low in elementary school but he found something he could excel in and he was able to raise his scores and pass the test because he had confidence once he found something he was good at. This subject was music. This started a conversation about the arts. The Governor stated how important the arts are and that he is getting the message. The Governor also stated about how important P.E. is as well. No one brought it up before this so I liked how he did. The Governor also talked about how schools seem to be taking the fun out of school and squeezing out the extras that are just as important as the core subjects. He said we need to find time for these areas. One suggestion he had was to extend the school day. This was for two reasons. The first was to give the teachers more planning time for interdisciplinary lessons. The second was to have time for the arts, etc.
I was concerned about this because we don’t want to be a dumping ground at the end of the day or who is going to make sure that time is used for music, art and P.E. I know my district would use it more for academics. I wanted to voice my opinion on this but did not get the chance. I did talk about it in small groups and people seemed to agree with my concerns. In my group, people really seemed to value the health and well-being of our students and believe they should have more P.E. time. Teachers believe in it so we just need to keep moving up the ladder and get P.E./Health written on the new education plan. We can hope.
I was impressed with Governor Strickland and his openness to ideas. He seemed sincere and willing to make education better in all areas. You really understand the whole picture by seeing him talk in person. Thank you again for that opportunity.
