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Boarding the bright yellow school bus on the hottest day of summer
School opens this week (Thursday in Clarksville) in most area schools. Please keep a watchful eye for children crossing streets, and remember to stop for school buses (it’s the law)!
Having lived in the area for three and a half years, I remain amazed by the early start to the school year. Having watched severe heat waves unfold in August for two of those three summers, I remain amazed that more school children, teachers, and bus drivers aren’t sickened by the excessive heat in the time it takes to line up, board, travel and debark from the yellow academic arks. Short for archaic?
What’s the deal?
Pools close just as the hottest month of the year kicks in, leaving parents with other young children unable access that form of cooling, and leaving no cooling options for the hot weekends still to come. Pools close because the school year starts, and many of the young lifeguards are heading back to class. And do they close this early out of antiquated habit?
The county clings to closure in May, before the summer heat sets in, which sets the stage for the first-day-of-school surge in August, just as temps will hit 100+ with high humidity, dangerous heat indexes, and poor air quality. Again. Of course, everyone will feel better too as they inhale the exhaust fumes and feel the heat radiating off a dozen or two buses and cars in crowded school parking lots when the mercury crosses the century mark. Are bus drivers certified in first aid and prepared to deal with heat exhaustion?
Add to all that the reality that air conditioning bills for the schools are a nightmare still in development, given the surge of people crowding into hallways to generate even more heat.
I believe it would make so much more sense to keep students in school until mid-June, and return closer to Labor, and closer to the starting time-line of most colleges and universities. Let our children stay home, and stay cool, in the hottest month. School will still be there in September, and in June.
About Christine Anne Piesyk 
In my 40+ years in media, I have worked as feature writer, investigative reporter, editor, publisher, and film/theater/arts critic. I brought my liberal New England activism to Tennessee several years ago, having finally completed a mid-life undergraduate degree in community organizing and women's studies, and an MA in Interdisciplinary Arts with a concentration in Alzheimer's Disease. I served on Future Search Commissions for two colleges and on homelessness for the City of Northampton (MA), where I applied some of my undergrad work in urban planning and community development. I am a member of FreeThinkers for Peace and Civil Liberties. I am a certified storm spotter just because weather fascinates me. In my spare time (define spare time please?) I am a voracious reader, obsessive movie buff, ballroom dancer, and classical music junkie. I also create sci-fi/fantasy and renaissance costumes. I see life as an ongoing opportunity for learning and adventure (one current interest is mastering preparation of foods from India and Southeast Asia). My dream: a return trip to Machu Picchu. After all, the best things still to come. All posts by Christine Anne Piesyk as presented on Clarksville Online are copyright ©2006, 2007, 2008 to the author.
Email: womanspeak@gmail.com
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Heat, pools, school year, SchoolsOne Response to “Boarding the bright yellow school bus on the hottest day of summer”
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August 8th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
You say we are taking unfair advantage of these children? Sounds like you are demanding a increase in the wages they are paid for doing the job in question. Jeff we will make a fine liberal/progressive out of you yet!