Search Results for: blog should seat belts be on school buses

Should You Hold Your Child Back a Year?

One controversial idea that seems to be gaining in popularity is the practice of intentionally holding a child back or delaying the start of school by a year. Thus, students who are qualified to enter kindergarten at the age of five stay home or in preschool that extra year, only entering formal school at the age of six. Why is this happening and what should you do? There are a few reasons that parents are choosing to delay the start of a child’s formal schooling. One reason is to ensure that the child will be at the top of the … Continue reading →

Why Don’t School Buses Have Seat Belts?

Car seats and booster seats are required by law whenever you transport a child, in a car, under the age of eight and the weight of 80 pounds. Why then, are not even seat belts required on school buses that carry children as young as five for kindergarten, or in the case of special services and private preschools as young as three? This was a question that I debated with our neighbor across the road as we watched our kids, in first and second grade, load on to the bus. This year we have a great bus driver who makes … Continue reading →

Schools Deal with Rising Gas Prices

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Previously I had commented on how the rise in gas prices had affected schools. Schools are spending more and more money on transportation. Many field trips have been cut out and districts are losing money on transporting students to and from school. I was actually surprised to see that Middle Tennessee had made the NEA morning reports with their story on how the schools have been negatively affect by gas prices. Just today I noticed that the price had rose another three cents. It seems that it is not going down anytime soon. My district had begun taking measures to … Continue reading →

Gas Prices Affect Schools

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Rising gas prices all over the country are causing quiet a stir. Newscasts, newspapers, and all other types of media are giving new reports of prices going up each day. Even truck drivers have gotten in on the protest of the rising cost. Almost everyone in America has been affected in some way. People everywhere in the United States are being forced to recalculate their budgets in order to allow for the extra cash being put into their vehicles. Education is no different. Schools too are seeing a negative impact of the high fuel prices. It is costing more to … Continue reading →

Girl Skips School and Saves a Runaway School Bus

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There have recently been two runaway school bus stories in the news. In both stories children used quick thinking and stopped the bus before major consequences took place. However in the first story that I will share with you, the student is suffering some consequences of her own. It seems that the high school student, Amanda Rouse, began feeling sick. Instead of visiting the nurse or calling home for someone to come and pick her up, she took actions into her own hands. Against the rules, she got on a bus with elementary school students and decided to ask the … Continue reading →

School Buildings – Is Yours Falling Apart?

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The thought in most cases is that a building does not teach a child. Great teachers can be very effective and reach many children without fancy technology or elaborate classrooms. However, nice and safe environments are an important part of a child’s education. The president of the National Education Association recently sent out a memo to urge Americans to contact Congress about the needs of our schools. The needs referred to did not include things such as class size or highly qualified teachers. The needs involved were updated textbooks and technology, modern buildings, and cared for structures. In his message, … Continue reading →

The Truth about School Bus Drivers

In my previous article I discussed the importance of school support staff. I also talked about how these people were often misunderstood or not given the credit that they deserve. My previous article addressed educational assistants and custodians. In this article I will continue to address the support staff that help to make a school successful. Many think that school bus drivers do little work. They take the children to school and come pick them up in the afternoon to take them home. This is true. However it takes much more than being able to drive a bus to be … Continue reading →

Do Kangaroos Wear Seat Belts? – Jane Kurtz

The little boy and his mother are off on a long-awaited trip to the zoo. He is so excited, he can’t sit still. “Can we go fast?” asked the boy. “Can’t we blast to the zoo?” “It won’t take long,” said his mom. “Sit still, you bouncy kangaroo.” She buckles him in, prompting him to ask her if they would still wear seatbelts if they were kangaroos. She explains that the kangaroo’s pouch holds the babies tightly so they don’t get jounced around. They arrive at the zoo and the mother rents a tiger-shaped stroller for him to ride in … Continue reading →

Bus Crashes at Disney World

I haven’t addressed the constant crashes at Disney parks because I figured that these things happen. I didn’t want to contribute to alarmism, and I thought I’d wait and see how Disney addressed the problem. But the crashes keep happening, so I’m wondering what’s going on. It’s really getting inexcusable. Three accidents within less than three weeks. Several people have been injured, and in one horrible incident, a nine-year-old boy was killed. Parks have accidents, and that’s something we accept when we go to them. But if this were a ride that had that many accidents within a short period … Continue reading →

Don’t Fight Fire with Fire

The argument starts innocently enough. One of you may have had a bad day or a bad morning and is grumbling about something. The other person walks into the room and becomes an immediate target. “Why can’t you ever remember to do such and such?!?” The other person on the defensive immediately snaps back, “Well, at least I’m not always doing this, that and the other thing!” The next instant you know, you are in a full-blown argument with issues being dragged up from every direction and point in time. This resulting argument is now blown so out of proportion … Continue reading →