Good for you! I wish I could save all of them.

Tomorrow there will be a student-faculty basketball game at Flat Rock Middle School. Nothing wrong with that, except that students must purchase a ticket for $1.00 to attend. Those students who do not have tickets must remain in the classroom and have been told they will not "just" be reading but will be doing book work. It's not that I can't spare $1.00, but the forced support of the athletic program (think of the total sum they'll rack up with this) and the penalization of those who don't participate ticks me off. What kind of a message is the school sending? The "book work" is essentially being used as punishment. If you're going to have a student-faculty basketball game, why not just let the entire student body enjoy it? No, we've got to use it to let the kids pay their way out of class. This is just another reason why these early-release days are an absolute WASTE of time and money. Get rid of them! Are you listening BOE? I doubt it.

This is wrong. There are actually kids today who might not have a dollar for the game. I would complain and maybe keep my child home in protest.
I plan to ask my grandchildren what they will be doing at their schools tomorrow.

How much do I need to donate so that each child would be able to participate / or enjoy the game????

That is really nice of you.
Believe me, there ARE people in Fayette county who DO NOT have the extra dollar for something like this.
Makes me furious. What is wrong with this school?

but you would have to have taken your money to the school by yesterday. Any kids not turning their money in by yesterday will be sitting in the classroom during the game today. The whole thing is just plain wrong.

From what I've heard it has been held over the kids heads by some teachers for the past week or so if they didn't pass a certain test they wouldn't be allowed to go to the game, even if they had $1.00!
This should be a free event for ALL students. To tell them if they don't pay or didn't pass a test they have to do bookwork (not reading) during the game reflects badly on the school-haven't heard any good comments on this. Another negative about this school.

that the FCBOE does not listen to the people that they are here to serve? This is just another example of making up the rules as you go along. Why do we have a winter break? Most people who took the survey wanted the FCBOE to get rid of this needless break. Someone at the FCBOE decided to take away a few days at Thanksgiving break instead. Somebody must like to go skiing during this time. I'd gladly give up this break if we could start school later in the summer.What do you think?

Way to go. I agree completely with you buddy.You neglected to add about the big march, the million man march(?),can other nationalities have their own march as well? What would be said? A protest for sure! Oh gee.....

I think it is fair to say that the original immigration to America from Africa was not exactly copasetic. Why are you trying to deny that?

That the school system is fostering racism by not teaching the whole story.

I have never seen, in any student text, that blacks from Africa were sold to white slave traders by their black African leaders. Why do you suppose that fact has been omitted?

Why aren't students learning that it was the black leaders in Africa who started the slave trade?

Is it because that fact doesn't fit nicely into an agenda?

We used to seperate out kids for education just like you suggest! It was called "SEGREGATION" ... and it WAS insane, my friend ... as insane as your suggestion.

You don't have to "celebrate" Black History Month, but if it takes setting aside one month out of 12 to help our educators turn focus on the contributions African-Americans have made to society, then so be it. Maybe one day it will be deemed unnecessary and obsolete and go away. In the meantime, it's folks like you and attitudes like yours that illustrate why it is still needed.

And by the way, I'm white and my family, which has been in Georgia for 200 years, didn't "own" slaves either. Cheers.

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NEWSBOY : DELIVERING NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

How about olive skin month?

As far as I know the Irish and Italians, along with several other ethnic groups including blacks, made this great country great.

All races contributed to it's success.

Why not just have a "Heritage" month of celebration where every race can share their history and culture with all the others.

One of my favorite things to do is go to food festivals where one can actually sample other cultures and learn to appreciate the how and why things are. Do you know what a "hoe cake" is? Have you ever had one? Do you know why it's call that?

You can learn a lot more about a culture by studying and participating in their traditions rather than reading their history.

You can gain a lot of weight too.

Field workers, in order to have something to eat during the day, would mix cornmeal with water and salt, and drop a thin layer on a field hoe blade, and either cook it over a small open fire, or by the sun if hot enough. Some type of sweetning was used when at home, if available. Sometimes during a bad winter, hoe cake and turnips would be the days food.
Although minorities were mistreated terribly in the United States at times, I think it is a mistake for them now to have their own celebrations as much separate from the majority as is possible. If they truly want to assimilate and be treated totally equal, they will eventually have to do as the immigrants who have totally assimilated. I realize most blacks didn't immigrate but never the less they are here, and will continue to live here.

I assume you knew the information rather than looked it up.

That one phrase, how cake, can provide a hell of a lot of history can't it?

I my opinion, you can get a far more complete understanding of the culture by how they lived. When you can understand why they lived the way they did you can gain a better appreciation for the culture and todays society as a whole.

That's the way history should be taught in school.

I have always known about hoe cake, I have eaten it.
I think 140 years is sufficient to continue to live an ancient culture, or to use mistreatment, then, as a reason now to demand extra.
Some are behind due to their culture of deprivation at one time, but that can not be changed, It is past just as the holocaust is past.