Is it just me or did this summer vacation fly by? It seems like it was just last week that kids were getting out of school for summer vacation and now a lot of them will be heading back in a couple of weeks.
It is my personal opinion that kids should go to school year round with two weeks off for summer and keeping with the regular schedule the rest of the year. During summer vacation parents have to struggle to find somewhere for their kids to go every day while they are at work and that creates another expense especially if you have more than one and you put them in some sort of summer camp. Also the majority of the time out of school the kids are bored out of their minds. Year round school would in my opinion alleviate some of this hardship and would also give our kids a level playing field when it comes to kids from other cultures.
I also think that all kids should wear uniforms to school. I really believe that if all kids wore uniforms to school it would cut out the competition of who has the newest, hottest gear. Not everyone can afford to dress their kids in the latest fashions or the newest sneakers so to me uniforms would level the playing field. School should be a place where our kids go to focus on preparing for their future but a lot of the time it is merely a fashion show and a chance for bullies to have new ammunition to tease those less fortunate.
I know some of you may be thinking that having to purchase uniforms for your kids would mean a double expense because they will need clothes to wear after school but I still think that they are a good idea. Maybe in an effort to offset the expense of the uniforms they could be issued out like school books and have to be returned in good condition at the end of the school year or maybe parents could be given some sort of tax break. It would be refreshing to see our young men wearing a sport jacket and possibly a tie instead sagging pants and a tee shirt.
I would love to see our kids taking mandatory classes in etiquette and chivalry and the girls taking classes in self-esteem and how to require a young man to treat you. Many of our young men and women are at a complete loss when it comes to proper behavior in restaurants and sometimes out in public as a whole. They lack the knowledge as to how to dress properly and beyond sports and hip hop culture lack the skills to carry on a decent conversation. Our young ladies have no clue about how to carry themselves in social settings either and when it comes to how to dress and makeup and hair styles it is frightening some of the things that I have seen. I am fully aware that teachers are not paid adequately but there has to be an answer to these issues and there has to be a way to help our black youth obtain the tools that they need so that when they get out into the world they can hold their own and demand the respect that they so richly deserve.
We have all said before that our children are our future so let’s come up with ways to make sure that they are equipped to handle it.
