kjmillig

So I'll be teaching at a new middle school starting in August that's only 3 miles ride from my house (2 miles straight line). Now I really don't have any excuses not to ride.
And a lot of kids ride to this school, so I'm going to feel out the situation with the principal to see if I might be able to teach some safety classes, and maybe start an advocacy type of club.
I'm thinking the goal would be to convince more kids to ride, and convince the principal to let us go teach safety classes to the intermediate and elementary schools that flank the middle school. We may actually get some good stuff going on. I plan to focus on safety issues, maybe bike rodeos, freestyle, helmet givaways, etc.
I tried to start a cycling club at the high school I've been at, but was told no due to "liability issues." Not many high schoolers ride in this area anyway.
I'll try to keep y'all updated on my progress.

Gibbygoo

Here's some info...hope it helps.

https://www.bikeleague.org/programs/education/index.php

fordfasterr

good luck.

Most likely the principal and all of the school board cronies are a bunch of SUV driving JAMs and think your idea is stupid.

Cyclaholic

Is it relevant to the subject you teach, or are you just trying to impose your beliefs on everyone else?

terceiro

I think as a public-school teacher, subject matter isn't the issue. kjmillig will also be responsible -- in addition to subject matter -- for teaching ethics, responsibility, and a bunch of other virtues that the state/school board thinks are important. Promoting those ideals by way of an activity that most middle-schoolers participate in seems like a no-brainer from the school's perspective; I'm surprised that he hasn't had success in the past. Also, I'm not sure how a club or elective class that focuses on safety morphs into "impos[ing] your beliefs." It seems that most schools have an LGBT club on campus: surely a class/club about cycling and health is less controversial than that.

Liability issues: bah. Any school that allows football should have no right to decline anything because of liability issues.

LastPlace

Very well intentioned idea but I second the concern about liability issues. The parent of a hurt child is going to look for someone to blame.

What about leading by example?

Guess I've spent too much time in courtrooms. Years and years too much.

Cyclaholic

The OP's proposal has nothing whatever to do with what the state/school board thinks is important and everything to do with his own personal transportation choice.

I'm not.

threephi

The OP speculated about initiating two separate activities: 1) "safety classes" and 2) "some kind of advocacy club"

Plenty of secondary schools in the US teach driver's ed as an elective. Nothing controversial about that. That's what I picture when I hear 'safety class', but for bicycles and other self-powered conveyances such as skateboards and scooters. When I went to school, this material was also (very) briefly covered in gym class.

Clubs are usually extra-curricular and while the school must approve which clubs are permitted to meet on school property and utilize school resources, they are in general based on the needs and desires of the school's local community (in other words, what the kids and their parents want) and not dictated from a central board. If the kids want a bike advocacy/transpo alternatives club, they should have one.

Additionally, in the US school boards are among the most radicalized and extreme bodies in all of US politics. I wouldn't reflexively put much stock in what they think is important.

Tapeworm21

Exactly. This is why there's gym class. Some people just don't want to be active. Let 'em be fat.

kjmillig

I personally don't put a lot of stock in some of our school board's decisions, but they do a lot of micro-managing, and principals/teachers have to listen.
Many/most extracurricular activities have nothing to do with subject matter taught, that's why it's extracurricular, like when the geography teacher coaches track, or a math teacher is the cheer leading advisor.
As far as liability issues, I'm totally perplexed. Major high school sports cause tons of injuries, but they're afraid of someone getting hurt riding a bike? And that was at the high school.
I also see advocacy and safety going hand-in-hand, not as two seperate activities. If I can promote using a bicycle as safe, then I stand a much better chance of administration approval. I'm not trying to say every kid in the school needs to commute, but if I can get more riding and enjoying it, great. I see having a multi-faceted club. One week teach safety, one week learn maintenance, another week watch a video of the Tour de France or freestyle riders, etc. And middle schoolers like variety.

texasphil

I support you 100%. If the purpose of a public school is to teach kids how to get a job and make money then they do a Lousy Job. If the purpose of a public school is to teach virtue, kindness, morals, and looking out for our fellow man then they due a Lousy Job also. Public Schools teach test taking and book regurgitation. A schools main concern is maintaining state and federal funding by showing good attendance and test scores. It's the individual teachers that go beyond that make the difference.

DoB

Some people want to be illiterate too, but we keep trying to teach them to read anyway. It beats paying for their lifelong incarceration later.

bhtooefr

texasphil: The purpose of the public school system in North America is to pump out "average" students that don't think for themselves, and are slaves to big business.

But, that's a topic for P&R.

kjmillig

That Japan's, Taiwan's, and China's school systems exactly. I know that from personal experience. I, and almost every teacher I know, struggle every day to get students to "think", logically, intelligently, objectively, intellectually. And believe me, it's a struggle.
More acurately, the purpose of the media system in North America is to create "average" people that don't think for themselves and are slaves to big business. (TV commercials, on average, are written to a 6th grade literacy level.)

bhtooefr

Look at stuff like No Child Left Behind, though.

It's all about pumping out students, getting good numbers, not giving them a real education.

Sure, there's individuals within that system that want to actually EDUCATE, but...

(FWIW, I work at a K-12 private school. (In their IT department, so very little contact with students, but still...))