I write this letter to propose a solution to a recurring problem at N.E.A.A.A.T. The problem is that the buses constantly make us late for class, eventually, that makes a tardy or gives us a day of detention. Students and teachers continuously become frustrated because the teacher has to restart the lecture or lesson over and over again. I suggest that we are able to ride skateboards, bicycles and any other means of transportation to get to class quickly and with time to spare. If we were to do this, it would help to solve the problem.
There are roughly 180 high school students in NEAAAT, and of these students, at least half of them end up showing up late to class due to buses. The high school students occupy eleven or twelve classrooms around the entire college campus. In order for the buses to make it around campus to both pick students up and drop them off at all of these classrooms, there is no way that there will not be some students late to class no matter what. These issues all lead to the one big problem, all making students late to class. There are five classrooms that are close to each other, but the other classes are spread across around eight hundred thirty acres of the ECSU campus. It takes several minutes to ride from one class to the other, by the time you get to your class you have already missed some important key components for that class. Sometimes, a bus might not even go to a building that a student needs to go to, disallowing them from riding the bus. Due to the loss of instructional time, some students had to figure it out on their own; therefore, not doing the assignment correctly which leads to a disconnect in the curriculum.
Many other colleges have implemented solutions similar to ours, allowing students to ride bicycles and other similar forms of transportation in order to get to class on time. On the other hand, recreational skateboarding may result in injury. For instance, you may be trying to do a kickflip and land wrong, you may have broken your foot in the process. You may even break a window then you will have to pay for a new window. Skateboarding also reduces the reliance on motor vehicle use; therefore you don’t have to use a lot of gas other than to get to school. On the plus side, skateboarding promotes healthy lifestyles as well as giving you exercise, because in high school after ninth grade you don’t get a gym class at NEAAAT. As long as there is a “walk only zone” in highly populated areas on campus, there shouldn’t be any conflict or injuries caused by skateboarders hitting pedestrians. Also, there should be an.
all-wheel policy which means all wheels have to be on the ground at all times while you are on campus and any person that might violate this policy has a possibility of being cited. The purpose of this policy is to cut down on unsafe skateboarding. If a campus was to come up with places of “walk only zones” they should provide a map showing where these areas are. All of these things are things that other colleges have used, and have worked for them in the past.
We propose that students should be allowed to ride skateboards, bicycles, and other types of transportation in order to get to their classes on time.“If these modes of transportation were implemented, not only would students get to class on time and learn more efficiently, but they would be healthier because many studies have shown that biking and other types of transportation improve students’ health,” (Hurley). Another benefit of using these as opposed to a car or bus is the decrease in money spent on fuel. Does it really seem logical to spend as much as we do on fuel? Not to mention all of the students who have minimum wage jobs at McDonald’s and such that pay for their gas. All in all, it is much healthier, cheaper, and more efficient for our education if were are allowed to ride skateboards, bicycles, and other similar modes of transportation in order to get to class.
Works Cited
- Kumar, Jagadesh. “Why Every Student and Professor Should Ride a Bicycle on a University
- Campus.” Tomorrow’s Academy. Stanford University. Web. 3 February 2019.
- Gilbert, Scott. “The Many Health Benefits of Cycling.” Penn State News. Penn State, 1 June 2017. Web. 3 February 2019.
- Hurley, Suzanne. “High School Students and Physical Activity.” Health.gov. CDC, 30 September 2011. Web. 5 February 2019.
- Robey, Richard. “College Campuses Making Skateboards Work.” Ground Control Systems. MH Magazine WordPress Theme, 31 August 2017. Web. 5 February 2019.
- Green: Jonny Neal Purple: Kat WilsonOrange: Ethan Copeland
