Editorials

Enriching students’ lives

Feb 1, 2007 5:44 PM

Take a look at the little story on the bottom of page 44 about a group of New York school kids who went to play soccer in Ghana during the recent winter recess. It’s more than just a feel-good story because it tells of the kind of experience a well-rounded education is supposed to provide to children.

For the young soccer players it was an adventure they will remember all their lives. Wouldn’t it be terrific if all students in New York’s public schools could have a similar experience?

If our schools did not skimp on — or eliminate — physical education, art, music, science, social studies and all the other so-called “extras” that should be part of a well-rounded education — subjects that may well be the keys to turning some kids on, to exciting them so that they become avid learners — then many more kids might have an adventure that will enrich them for as long as they live. Then our schools truly would be stimulating environments, enticing, coaxing, nudging kids to explore the whole world.

That’s what schools are supposed to be, not just the test-taking factories they have become.