Editor:

There is a new protocol being enforced in Socorro High School these days.

The kids are allowed only 3 minutes to get from class to class (it used to be 5 minutes). Some of those classes are far apart, some are even in a different building. If a student is just one minute late to class they get marked tardy.

The 3 minute passing period makes it impossible for kids to go and talk to a teacher or an administrator with a question or a problem. It makes it impossible for kids to go and get their stuff from their lockers. It even makes it impossible for them to visit the restroom.

Are we trying to educate our kids? Make them smarter, better thinkers? Or are we teaching them how to run the fastest between the classes and how to use the restroom in under a minute? What will the kids put on their college application? Proficient in advanced math or/and two foreign languages or: “I learned how to pee fast in my high school!”

There is no need to punish everybody just so the few fall in line. History and experience teach us that this does not work. The few who abuse the system will keep doing it, while vast majority will be punished in the process for no fault of their own. Educators and school board you should know this. Please fix it.

Zeljka Fuchs-Stone

Director, Climate and Water Consortium, NMT

 

El Defensor Chieftain