ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 28, 1996 TAG: 9608280025
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SCHOOL started in Roanoke County and Salem on Monday. Of the 13,771 students expected in Roanoke County, there were only 124 no-shows. Not bad, especially for a pre-Labor Day opening when beaches and other vacation spots are still beckoning. It shows that Roanoke County families have their priorities straight.
We expect no less of students and their parents in other districts in the area on the school year's opening day - for many, next Tuesday. As Marty Robinson, Roanoke County's assistant superintendent, says, ``They're ready!''
Willing and eager, too, for the most part, since the start of school each fall is an exciting event in most youngsters' lives. That's how it should be. It's seeing old friends after a summer apart, and meeting new friends. It's also a clean slate waiting to be filled with achievements and learning, never mind last year's report card.
But perhaps we old fogies are just waxing sentimental. We know, really we do, that school is not so pleasant for some youngsters. Peer pressure, social conflict, fear of failure - not to mention those grown-ups at the front of the class growling for quiet and assigning homework.
And for too many kids, sad to say, school is plain b-o-r-i-n-g. We were reminded of that by an article in The Christian Science Monitor about back-to-school blahs in Hartford, Conn.
Hartford students balked en masse - 6,000 absentees! - on the first day of school last year. So concerned citizens there are trying to jazz up the Sept. 4 opening this year with random visits to classrooms by sports stars and other celebrities, and by offering free tickets to a basketball game. Said one of the sponsors of the star-studded incentive, ``We can't just say, `Go to school, it's the right thing to do.'''
Gee, why not? It is the right thing to do. And, done right, education itself is the experience of a lifetime. Give credit to educators and parents around here. At least they don't have to resort to bribes and gimmicks.
Now, if they could just sustain back-to-school excitement over the course of the year - and, for that matter, extend the academic year so that summer isn't such a long time away from school - we'd really be in business.
LENGTH: Short : 44 linesby CNB