Fresno Schools Need a Facelift
By Ariel, Jaleesa, and Essence

The following are pieces written by Fresno students on their take on public schools, and how to improve them.

We Need Electives People Actually Like
Ariel, Age 17

I think there should be more different types of electives in school, ones that people don't normally take, like Fashion, Japanese class, Portuguese language, Dance—you know, things that wouldn't be on a high school elective list. Electives get kids more involved.

Kids at my school aren't motivated to do anything nowadays. I have been an active member of McLane High School's Black Student Union for three years now, and there are no more males in our club. One time, an intern from Fresno State University came with his frat brothers to talk to our BSU club, and when they saw we had no males, they went out on a hunt with me and the girls. We took them everywhere around the school where the young black men hang out, but for some reason, nobody was in their spot. I was so ashamed because they took their own time to recruit males for our club, but no one showed. We had a Step Team, which is what I love to do, but that died down because of lack of interest.

Nowadays, people aren't interested in any type of extracurricular activity unless there is food involved, which really shouldn't matter. What should matter is that it makes you happy, but I guess if you must use bribery, maybe schools should offer elective credits for some clubs if they can't offer food.

If you ask me, you should not have to bribe students, but if that's what it takes, then I'm open to suggestions.

Too many Students, Not Enough Classrooms
Jaleesa, Age 17

Nearly all of the schools in Fresno Unified are overcrowded. There is a growing population of people attending school, and there are not enough schools to support that. At McLane, we have exactly 38 minutes to feed a 2,400+ student body. At lunch, there is a flood of students, much like a sea of people, it is nearly impossible to fight your way through. People are always late to class because they are trying to eat lunch. As the school year went on, teachers began to mistrust students and “step” them (disciplinary action). Teachers can eventually kick students out after being late five times.

We have too many students and not enough classrooms. We often lack supplies such as books and desks, and the students often have to share, or just go without. McLane just added 25 new teachers to the school. These new teachers don't have classrooms of their own—they have to go back and forth across campus to use another teacher's classroom during (the other teacher's) prep period. On average, there are 30 students (at the most) per classroom, but at McLane, it is not uncommon to see 40-50 students per class. A teacher has too many students and thus cannot attend to a student's individual learning needs. If a teacher constantly moves classrooms, a student can't find a teacher if that student needs extra help from that teacher. The students may lose motivation because they can't get help. If there's no help from teachers, then who? Students lose confidence in themselves and can't pass the class.

The Principle of McLane recently addressed the student body, saying that he has absolutely no tolerance for bad behavior or tardiness. If he sees that we follow such actions, he will consider expulsion, and he stated, “You will become J.E. Young or DeWolf's problem” (both are independent study schools).

With this kind of punishment, the McLane students seem as if they want to retaliate more, carrying the attitude “if you're going to treat me like a criminal, then I'm going to act like one!” This makes it easier to kick students out of school, thus easing the overcrowding slowly. I believe this is a really pathetic solution to ease overcrowding.

At school, there are some teachers who don't enjoy their jobs as they would have liked to. I have a teacher, named Mrs. Aldape, who shows ever increasing favoritism to a few of her students. She teaches Theater and English, and she admitted she prefers to teach Theater. At the beginning of the year, she made us get into groups and write an epic. I got stuck in a group of illiterate Asian kids. They fooled around and didn't know what the assignment was about, so I had to do it all by myself. I told her about my problem and she did absolutely nothing. She likes to put us in groups so she can have time to chat with her favorite theater students, using their cameras and cell phones. At one point, she made me so angry, I left the classroom. The next day, she let me yell at my groupmates, but when I started talking about her teaching methods to my groupmates, she told me to shut up. Ever since then, it has been an ongoing cycle, because she won't stop putting us in groups. Mrs. Aldape expects the students to teach themselves the subject of English, then make us act everything or read out, like a theater class.

Why Teachers Yell Help
Essence, Age 14

I would say that Fresno has a problem with crowded schools. In my PE class, we have about 60-70 kids and that is way over the limit (I bet sometimes my PE teacher says HHHHHHHHEEEEEEELLLLLLPPPPP all the time). In my PE class, it's hard to get a lesson started because somebody is either yelling or just won't shut up (hahaha you know they get in trouble with the TAs). I think that every school needs more teachers because the limit is only 40 kids a class and we have more than 40. In my Spanish class, we have about 40-45 and that is a lot if we only have 39 desks (and yes, I make sure I have one). We play what my teacher calls “musical chairs”. After she takes roll, and you don't have a chair, and someone is in your chair, you can get a chair if there is nobody in it. And if that person comes in after the tardy bell, it's kinda too bad (LOL).

I'm sayin' all of this to say that we either need more teachers, or we need to expand our Fresno schools. And personally, I think they need to expand and get more teachers (LOL).

By: The only one who everybody calls ~Sparklez~ (Essence)

Also Read:
Fists Up: What Fresno Teens Have to Say About Fights
Facilitated by Patricia Johnson and Mai Der Vang
November 21, 2006

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