[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 77 (Thursday, May 30, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E971]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




STATEMENT BY TERESA SNOW AND TYLER RYAN REGARDING CHANGES IN SECONDARY 
                               EDUCATION

                                 ______


                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 30, 1996

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, for the benefit of my colleagues I would 
like to have printed in the Record this statement by Teresa Snow and 
Tyler Ryan, high school students at Peoples Academy in Vermont, who 
were speaking at my recent town meeting on issues facing young people:

       We're both Seniors at Peoples Academy High School in 
     Morrisville, VT. We're going to talk about improving the 
     education system, and education opportunities. We basically 
     gathered these ideas from our own experiences and our own 
     concerns, and we came up with these topics and ideas.
       We believe that all kids should go to pre-school, and at an 
     early age they should start learning our language, and many 
     of the words. . . . Being a high school senior, I can't watch 
     the news and understand what they're talking about, because I 
     don't believe I've had the right education and background. I 
     believe that they should learn about the environment and 
     recycling, what goes where; 'cause, we only got bins in our 
     classrooms, and maybe when I was in middle school, and kids 
     throw their trash in the recycling and throw recycling in 
     trash cans, and they don't really care. You need to know when 
     you're young where things go and how to take care of this 
     world.
       I think that foreign language should be a requirement. 
     Because we're in Vermont, we should learn French because 
     we're close to the Canadian border. People in Arizona and New 
     Mexico should learn Spanish, because they're near the Mexican 
     border. We need to learn a foreign language. Tyler wants to 
     work with architecture, and I guess a lot of the supplies 
     come from Japan, and . . . he may need to learn Japanese, and 
     without that readily accessible, then he's not going to be 
     able to know--he's not going to have the right connections.
       For middle school and high school ideas . . . I went to 
     England as an exchange student a year and a-half-ago, and . . 
     . they have a different system. They have required classes up 
     till you're like fifteen, and we could have our required 
     classes and our credits from 7th through 10th grade. Then 
     11th and 12th grade you could do job-oriented in your 
     profession, like singled-out. You can take very, much more 
     focused classes, become more prepared for, if you don't go to 
     college, then you have some background of what you want to 
     do.
       We also feel that the teacher:student ratio is really 
     ``off.'' Kids don't get the attention that they need, so we 
     thought that excelling students, kids that are getting 95's 
     in their classes, should have an opportunity of either 
     becoming independent in that course, and possibly spending 
     the class period in the library in the school, or using 
     different resources in like the town libraries, or other 
     schools' libraries or college libraries. Or they could become 
     like teachers aides--complete their work and then go around 
     and help the classroom, 'cause that would help out both 
     ways: it would help the ratio, the greater student:teacher 
     ratio. I also think another thing--if you have students 
     that go to college to become teachers, they should get an 
     opportunity to do apprenticeships, come to schools to help 
     with the ratio as well.
       And, kids lately are lacking so much desire and interest in 
     school; it's very, very sad. Like, I could have gone to 
     college, but I really don't have any desire anymore, right 
     now. It's something everybody needs; everybody needs a good 
     education.
       Tyler: There definitely needs to be smaller classes; the 
     classrooms are just way too crowded. The technology is not 
     there; like, in our school we have one computer/classroom, 
     and that's definitely not enough, because if you took a class 
     period to work on a class project, or whatever, it would take 
     you . . . it would take the class about a month to do a 
     project over the computer. We think there should be available 
     money for apprenticeships and trade schools, and better, more 
     accessible to scholarships . . . for college, because it's 
     just--the prices are outrageous. We also think that there 
     should be an education tax, which would be put into high 
     school kids' paychecks, that would take out a small 
     percentage to pay for college; and if they decide not to use 
     that money . . . to go to college, they could put it towards 
     retirement, or put it into a savings plan, or something like 
     that.
       Congressman Sanders: Both of you have raised some very 
     interesting points. Let me ask you a couple of question, 
     because you have raised some issues I hadn't thought about. 
     The issue, I think, that Teresa and Tyler have talked about, 
     is that when you go to school as students, in a sense you are 
     consuming a product, and I was wondering how often students 
     are consulted about the quality of that product. In other 
     words, let me just ask you a question: Is it your 
     understanding that students have access to School Board, in 
     order to express their views about the quality of the 
     education they're getting?
       Teresa: I know we do [have access] because I was on Student 
     Council, and they've brought things to the School Board about 
     having all-day Winter Carnivals; but . . . they don't listen 
     a lot. I mean, the Student Council were very strong in their 
     presentation, and they had a lot of good ideas, and things to 
     back up what they wanted to do, so it was easily passed. But 
     . . .
       Congressman Sanders: So it's not your impression that 
     students are really consulted in terms of how they feel about 
     the good or bad parts of their education.
       Tyler: I feel that the School Board doesn't even know what 
     is going on in the school. I've never even seen a School 
     Board member really in a school. They don't come and talk to 
     us; they talk to . . . the teachers. And I don't even feel 
     that the teachers in our school know what the students want 
     or need.
       Congressman Sanders: Well, in terms of student involvement 
     . . . do you think it might be of interest or importance for 
     the students to say to the School Board, ``Listen, you're 
     spending money on us. don't you want to have our opinion 
     about how well you're doing?
       Tyler: Definitely.
       Teresa: I definitely think they should get our opinion, and 
     a lot of times they go to such groups as Student Council or 
     NHS, and those kids aren't giving the school a problem; it's 
     not those kids that the teachers and the School Board want to 
     talk to . . . it's not where the problem is, it's not where 
     the issues lie.
       Congressman Sanders: Okay. Teresa, you raised an issue: you 
     said that you perceive that some students are not really 
     interested in learning, they're giving up. Why do you think 
     that's so?
       Teresa: Well, when you're in kindergarten and you're with 
     these teachers, that want you to play with blocks and you're 
     having a good time, and you just--teachers don't try to get 
     you as involved, I don't think, and you just lose interest. 
     They don't try as hard. They just want to get on with their 
     class, teach what they're supposed to teach . . .
       Tyler: . . . and then finish the class and be done with it. 
     They don't really care about the students that much.
       Congressman Sanders: It sounds to me like the suggestion 
     you may be making is we've got to figure out a way to involve 
     the students in the State of Vermont in their own education, 
     more than is the case. Is that right?
       Tyler: Yes.

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