The Langley School District expects enrolment to increase by about 250 students this year.
That naturally means more pressure on budgets and crowded classrooms.
So it is disheartening when someone puts vulgar graffiti on an elementary school, as happened at R.C. Garnett Demonstration Elementary earlier this week.
Some person or people sought out or purchased spray paint. Then they had to make their way to the school and think up the stupid stuff they painted on the school walls, then make their way home or elsewhere.
It never fails to amaze how much effort people will devote to nonsense like this.
Imagine if that energy was instead put into helping a neighbour pull weeds or offering to return their empty pop cans.
To anyone who chooses to vandalize public property – what you do is pointless and puerile, a waste of public resources that could be spent in the classroom.
In other words, you’re the reason we can’t have nicer things.
Do we do enough to create an environment that respects education and the value it brings to people’s lives and society? Not enough.
So instead of the typical, old school syrupy back to school opinion poiece offering encouragement about the year ahead, slow down in school zone, blah, blah blah, we offer this message – education is a privilege.
Elsewhere in the world, people fight for the ability to go to school, the opportunity to learn.
Respect yourself enough to know that you need to learn throughout life, respect those around you because they also have a job to do, whether that is learning or teaching, and respect your community enough to know that society is footing the bill.
– H.C.
