Back to School time
It may seem hard to believe, but the 2024-25 school year begins next week. It seems like only days ago we were congratulating the Class of 2024 and wishing them well in their future endeavors. The end of August means the end of the summer vacation and the beginning of a new term.
No matter how old one gets, the beginning of a new school year is a milestone. Gone are the “lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer,” to quote an old Nat King Cole tune, and we march toward cooler and colder weather, fall and all it offers and the cold of winter. The time is bittersweet because we enjoy the warmth and fun of the summer but realize all good things must end. They end, but we realize summer is not “officially” over for another three-plus weeks. Yet, as summer began “unofficially” with Labor Day, it ends with the beginning of school and Labor Day on September 2.
The warp and woof of the year is really centered in many ways on the school calendar. Clubs and organizations will gear up for a new business year, while specialty groups, such as church choirs begin anew. It has its own excitement, and its own rewards. Still, those first few weeks back remind us the fun and sun of summer are but a fading memory.
West Haven students begin next week with a full schedule, according to information provided by the Board of Education. The kids will hit the ground running, getting into the swing of the schedule. Before they realize it, the day-to-day routine will be a welcome change, and getting back to work is more a test of the will than a test of time.
Best of luck to all the students, their teachers and other support staff, who work so hard to make the school experience so meaningful. Incoming seniors have the opportunity to make their mark in the various secondary schools in the area, and we wish them an especially successful and meaningful year.
Best of Luck! It may be hard to believe it now, youngsters, but there will be a time in your life when you will look back fondly on your school years. Enjoy them while you can.
Bring Civics back
With the beginning of school coming in just a few days, it is time to make a plea for something obviously missing in the curriculum nationwide: Civics.
A recent poll showed that 60 percent of those questioned thought the First Amendment is too broad, and that free speech goes too far. This should be a startling revelation to anyone who believes without free speech all other freedoms are in peril. The reason for this is, at least in part, the lack of civic education in the nation’s schools.
Civic in Connecticut was a required course for sophomores until just a few decades ago. How the Constitution was written, what it said, what the discussions were was all part of the course. The fact there are three separate branches of government, the Executive, Legislative and Judicial, with checks and balances on each branch was an important lesson to be learned.
It has become obvious that the Imperial Presidency, something discussed as far back as the Roosevelt Era, is becoming increasingly a problem. With the rise of the bureaucratic state, the power of legislative and judicial has been eroded, or better subsumed into departments under the Executive. Thankfully, the Supreme Court has begun curtailing that authority with the recent scuttling of the Chevron rule. Authority to define the extent of power in the alphabet soup that is commissions and administrative departments is for Congress to decide, not the departments themselves.
Civics, the way the government is constructed, must be brought back into schools. Even members of Congress do not understand their roles, and some are just political hacks, wanting their party’s agenda to be implemented no matter what the legalities.
Freedom is a precious thing and can be lost if the public is ignorant of its own institutions and rights. Bring back Civics. It is a matter of Constitutional order or anarchy.