All About Making Passes... On the Road, At School, In Life Out of LIfe...(Could your next pass be your last?)

Sitting at a computer reflecting on the news headlines in our local papers in CT, The Lakeville Journal and The Republican-American out of Waterbury CT, there were shocking headlines about how many students are Not Passing one or more classes.

That was a catalyst for about ten letters and two main articles about the new schedule proposal at HVRHS (Housatonic Valley Regional High School) in Falls Village CT.)  With shrinking populations in many smaller towns in the MA/NY CT area, every 'sector of the community' is under scrutiny to see what is needed to help them succeed at whatever age and stage of life they are enjoying or facing. For a few decades I have encouraged local schools and asked state representatives (including Gubernatorial candidates such as Dan Malloy) about how we could invest in supporting early childhood and even maternal experiences so we would have better outcomes with helping students succeed in the early years of schooling. How students due in the early years (Pre-K through 2nd grade) can put them on a trajectory of future success or failure often times, with those who do well early doing better in successiver grades and those struggling never quite catching up or even having a downward spiral of educational reports.

The passing with a good grade standard is different from being moved along to keep the peace or save money strategies that can leave many older students having to 'fake it to make it', cheat, fail, drop out or land in jail if they cannot secure a job or way to make ends meet with support from family and friends. In the last decade when realizing how early school starts and how many programs are offered, I have thought of ways to help people Slow Down and Do Less so they could catch up on many fronts.

These may include having weekends  supplemental programs either at the schools (even the elementary schools for instance) run by recreational or other groups from an area. Sports, arts and theatre programs often get nurtured in such ways. In the case of the regional program, perhaps a group of twenty gals could stay at some host homes one weekend, and twenty guys could be hosted another weekend to actually 'stay in Falls Village and not have to drive for a weekend. There are parts of Cornwall and Salisbury or Lakeville that are within walking or biking distance as well.

The community of Falls Village could become an extension of the classrooms and people could line up programs at the library (which often has to raise funds to stay open) and even the one church left in town might be open to hosting some events (and again hopefully get some rent monies to help them stay afloat.) The Daycare could possibly be used for its space or programs to encourage early childhood studies and the new recreation facility in the warmed months could be used to Teach Everyone How to Swim (June-September) with special programs in mind for the high school students.

That venue could also serve as a gathering place for weekend programs and perhaps teachers and others would set up camps and outdoor class rooms so students could experience a wide array of skills (Native American teachings, old life skills, permaculture and of course some outdoor recreation, folk singing and maybe even some rock and roll along with the 3Rs and First Aid and CPR, driving and dating and life skills.) It used to be a joke that the pool at Housy was on the third floor but now we actually have one close by.

Of course there is a swim team that gets to train at Hotchkiss for serious swimmers and maybe a new wave of recreational life activities can be encouraged for fitness and wellness. I hoped there would be a dance studio and with The Center on Main and the upstairs of the Town Hall still possible spaces, that too could work nicely. Some schools such as Cornwall are looking at having to ship their students out of town with likely the grade school in Falls Village not far behind due to dwindling numbers. More people could think of ways to recruit visitors, interns and longer term residents to be in the community, possibly with homeschooling if paying tuition or maintaining residency is too high of a hurdle for many to scale.

Depending on what each state is mandating (such as in CT having towns pay 1/3rd of teachers' pensions) then more serious flexible schooling options likely will be needed. See more ideas on www.gaia.org for reforming a society with more work and care exchanges, growing food locally and focusing on health rather than only addressing sickness at the show of symptoms where it's often 'too little too late' and not in a timely fashion. Sounds a bit like the education dilemma we are seeing ALL OVER THE COUNTRY in far too many schools and areas. In CT the gap between rich and poor schools is linked to the amount of money poured into the educational systems. Yet even in a wealthy school of a couple thousand whether in New Haven or in Fairfield CT while many did well in top classes, maybe half the class I will guess, plenty did not do so well academically back in the 1980s. This trend has been steady with many programs. Why not get more people Thinking About this Issue and Providing an Array of Support from Many Sectors of Society. A little motivation can go a long way. 

The other big news story was about a 25 year old man who was passing someone or passed a police cruiser (which may have been on the side watching traffic, I need the details again.) With three other passengers in the car, he accelerated and ended up crashing, losing his life and that of young woman. The other two survived with minor injuries. That pass was his last and his friends had to suffer the consequences. I know of others who have lost a friend or child along those lines. We could all SLOW DOWN when it comes to driving in small towns and even when it's Just Not Necessary. Humans are drving vehicles and many (expecially Men but also some women who often are running about to help others or get more done after work etc.) With kids in the car, make that a Double in terms of stop risky driving and so forth. Need to post since library hour is up. Ciao and peace!