WALKING FOR AN EDUCATION? WHY?

Elementary school children walking two miles to school unsupervised, in all types of weather, and expected to perform at their maximum? Today, unbelievable, especially in metropolitan Montgomery, AL, the pace-setting capital city! This unbelievable stress on elementary school children walking this fall two or more miles to school, in the 36105 zip code of west Montgomery, was revealed in a walk on last Saturday, April 09, 2011, by parents, their children, and concerned community leaders and workers. They learned that the strain and imposition on the children, who are expected to take this walk twice a day—morning and afternoon, is overwhelming. The adults, with longer legs and a greater understanding of purpose, found themselves exhausted from the turnaround walk from the Chevron gas station, on the corner of Court Street and South Boulevard, to Davis Elementary School on Rosa Parks Street. This overwhelming taxation on these targeted and victimized children is cruel, heartless, and simply inhuman. To expect these children to walk past a familiar neighborhood school, i.e., Harrison Elementary School, to attend Davis Elementary School, where they are unfamiliar with most, if not all, the teachers, administrators, and staff, is abusive and brutal. How are they to rationalize and understand that they are having to suffer, because responsible adults refuse to procure the funds needed to keep them in a more accessible and comfortable school setting? Further, these elementary school children will not be able to function academically at their maximum, given the circumstance of an unreasonable condition and an unanswered question of “Why?” Since the standards of education are much higher today, nation-wide, than they were in the twentieth century, what kind of atmosphere is this condition creating for the education of the west Montgomery elementary school children? Back in the day (pre-‘70’s), when walking to school—even a great distance—was the norm, the children grouped themselves with older children—their siblings and relatives, as guides and supervisors, and they walked the distance. This was when gangs were not ruling the community and many of the high schools included the other grades. Today, buses that used to pick up school children, who lived over two miles from the neighborhood school, will no longer be accessible to these children. Rather, we are told either money is not available to fund the cost of picking them up, or the buses are accessible to students living in a different section of Montgomery, versus west Montgomery. If this is true, does this identify a race or class of people who are the less cared for and most vulnerable to being disfranchised, manipulated, and used? If so, is this the America we are striving to keep sovereign and concerned about the masses? This letter is an appeal to concerned MPS and city elected officials to “wake up and smell the stench” being created by this over imposing, irrational, and overwhelming task upon school children to walk past a familiar school to an unfamiliar school where they cannot justify or rationalize the change. Ultimately, we are saying that this change from neighborhood and familiar school is programming the children to fail educationally and to become a liability to the community and state, and, maybe, the nation, if they are not dead before they reach their teen years. Two choices we offer to remedy this unfair and unintelligible condition to our west Montgomery elementary school children are: (1) First, reinstate the school that is already accessible to these children, and with whom they have identity with through their parents and other relatives, who are alumni(ae) of the school; and (2) Find the money to restore the bus pick-up of the children for transporting them to and from the school. William Larkin Montgomery Educational Improvement Association