A Monthly Newsletter produced by Sands CISD
HOOFBEATS
DECEMBER 2006
From the Editor
Times are changing!
Little Johnny walks down the hallway at his local high school; hoping to see his high school sweetheart. Tucked away within his locker is a single rose that he plans on giving his sweetheart at the end of the day. As he makes his way to his homeroom class he spots his favorite teacher, who happens to be his English teacher. They stop and chat for a while and on this particular occasion little Johnny uses words like yes ma’am and no ma’am. He talks to her in a very respectful tone. As he finally makes his way to his homeroom class, he along with all of his other classmates stand as they recite the pledge of allegiance, followed by one of his classmates leading the entire class in a word of prayer. This picture of a high school in the 1940’s and 50’s where there was an environment of discipline and learning.
Now fast forward to today.
Little Johnny walks down the hallway of the local high school keeping his head down most of the time because he doesn’t want to offend somebody who might be carrying a gun. In fact, he knows that at any given moment the security cameras all throughout the school are monitoring his every action. On this particular morning little Johnny had to wake up 15 minutes earlier so he could get through the new metal detectors that were installed yesterday. He would have liked to have brought that single rose for his high school sweetheart, but little Johnny didn’t want to risk the drug dogs reacting to something suspicious smelling in his locker; so that rose stayed at home.
As he makes his way to his homeroom class, he hears students talking to teachers, but the language is totally different. There is no respect, and most of the words are foul. The teacher is powerless to do anything about it because he/she may infringe on the free speech rights of the student. As he gets to his homeroom class, the pledge of allegiance has been dropped, because after all it contains the phrase, “one nation under God,” prayer has also long since been dropped from school activities, and as such it has been replaced with the morning announcements. So little Johnny gets to sit at his desk and listen to his fellow classmates talk about the debauchery they committed over the weekend. As he listens little Johnny that his name has been randomly selected for drug testing.
My how times have changed in our society and isn’t it a shame that our schools have had to make the change with it? Thankfully, this is not a reflection of our school district. Although we have had to make some changes at Sands for safety reasons, we still somewhat live in that proverbial bubble, that makes Sands a great place to learn in.
However, as society changes, our children change with it. Adolph Hitler once said,
“Let me control the textbooks and I will control the states…”
He knew that if he were going to change a nation, the first place to start would be with the young people. He knew that if he could get in the hearts and the minds of young people nobody could stop him. He went on to say in a speech on November 6, 1939, “When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come over to your side’, I calmly say, Your child belongs to us already… What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they know nothing else but this new community.”
That speech was made just 67 years ago. Today it is not just our textbooks that influence our children. Today our children are influenced by the Internet, music lyrics, television, video games and, as always, their peers. Hitler is no longer alive but the threat to our children’s moral, spiritual, mental and physical parts are still threatened today by the same hatred, bigoted and self-gratifying attitude that tried to kill a nation.
I am not trying to say that all of these forms of media are
trying to turn our children into Nazis, but that if as adults and parents we
leave these forms of media unchecked we are essentially allowing the world to
influence our children with our permission.
As parents we need to be more aware of the activities of our children are
involved in and put limits on their activities. We need to spend more time being our children’s parents and less
time trying to be their best friends.
If we don’t act like parents, then the only guide our children will have
is the world we live in, which is changing everyday.
Scott
From the Superintendent
I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving Holiday. I wanted to
remind everyone that in the unlikely event of delays or cancellation of school
due to weather. You may tune in to KBTS 95.7, KPET in Lamesa on the F.M. dial
and Fox channel 34 on your television
and they will have the school delay times. We will also try and post it on the
website http://sands.esc17.net/
Basketball season is upon us. Our JV tournament is this weekend and it seems like we have had to eject at least one parent every year. Fortunately it has not been parents from our school. I would like to take this time to encourage all of our fans to be careful of the example they set for our students. There are many young students sitting in the stands and they watch the way we act. Ejections at UIL basketball games last year were at an all time high and the treatment by fans has made it difficult to retain good officials. I expect that our fans will respect officials and other teams and will continue to exhibit good sportsmanship.
Region 17 has had at least 4 students die in car accidents this school year. Recently God spared five of our students in two accidents. We were really lucky. I want to encourage all of our students and their families to be careful when they get behind the wheel or passenger seat of any car. During this time of the year we often have fog and ice. Please slow down and be careful.
If I can be of any help please call or stop by.
Thanks,
Wayne Blount
From
the Principal
December, what a wonderful time of the school year. Christmas bells are ringing and basketballs are bouncing! I love it all!!! Merry Christmas to All! So much for my emotional feelings and on with the important issues at dear old Sands.
Attendance is a big issue at this time of year. If your child is running fever, please keep him/her at home. If not, please send them. Research shows that children, who are in school most of the time, do better in school. Being late for school hurts a child’s learning, as well. A student who is 10 minutes late every day will miss 30 hours of instruction time during the year. Please help us with attendance because schools are funded by your child’s attendance.
A big “Thanks You “ to all students involved in Elementary and Junior High UIL. With all the other activities our students are involved in, UIL is extremely hard to find time for and I really appreciate your efforts to include UIL as well. Also, many thanks to the teachers and parents in the district, for their work with these students. The UIL meet will be held on December 6th and 7th at Klondike.
Finals for secondary UIL will be December 18th-22nd, with early release days on December 21st and 22nd.
The last piece of information is for parents. Parents, please become involved with your
child’s education. Your child’s success
depends on your involvement.
My door
is always open,
Zelda
Bilbo
From
the Counselor
Please view the Counselors page located at: http://sands.esc17.net/Counselor/counselor.htm
for important Internet links and other useful information concerning the
school, testing, financial added etc.
There have been new additions to the website.
In the News
Games assault self-control
YOUNG people who play violent video games show increased activity in areas of the brain linked to emotional arousal and decreased responses in regions that govern self-control, a new study has found.
The study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to
record tiny metabolic changes in brain activity in 44 adolescents who were
asked to perform a series of tasks after playing either a violent or nonviolent
video game for 30 minutes.
The children, with no history of behavior problems, ranged in age from 13 to
17.
Half played a T-rated first-person shooter game called
"Medal of Honor: Frontline," involving military combat, while the
other group played a nonviolent game called "Need for Speed:
Underground."
Those who played the violent video game showed more activation in the amygdala,
which is involved in emotional arousal, and less activation in the prefrontal
portions of the brain associated with control, focus and concentration than the
teens who played the nonviolent game.
After playing the games, the children completed tasks
requiring concentration and processing of emotional stimuli while their brain
activity was scanned.
"What we showed is there is an increase in emotional arousal. The fight or
flight response is activated after playing a violent video game," Mathews
said.
Video games with a T-rating (for Teen) are considered suitable for ages 13 and
older. They may contain violent content, strong language or suggestive themes.
Numerous behavioral and cognitive studies have linked exposure to violent media
and aggressive behavior.
FFA
Sands FFA Leadership Teams participated in contests:
El Rancho District FFA Leadership Contest –
November 6th
1st Job Interview – Logan Gaskins
1st Sr. FFA Creed – Richard Lucio
1st Jr. FFA Creed – Tyler Ware
1st Jr. Quiz – Ashli Stockton, Kimberly Wiggington, Reuben McMorris,
& Johnny Rogers
2nd Jr. Chapter Conducting - Ashli Stockton, Kimberly Wiggington,
Johnny Rogers, Gabriel Guillen, Oscar Martinez, Jerome Jacobs, Braeson Ramey,
& Tyler Ware
5th Jr. Creed – Oscar Martinez
6th FFA Radio – Mary Rogers, Melony Ruiz, & Thomas Pena
6th Sr. Creed – Junior Lucio
11th – FFA Radio – Junior Lucio, Richard Lucio, & Kayla Gomez
Area II Leadership Contest – November 18th
2nd Job Interview – Logan Gaskins
4th Sr. FFA Creed – Richard Lucio
6th Jr. FFA Creed – Tyler Ware
7th Jr. Quiz – Ashli Stockton, Kimberly Wiggington, Reuben McMorris,
& Johnny Rogers
9th Jr. Chapter Conducting - Ashli Stockton, Kimberly Wiggington,
Reuben McMorris, Johnny Rogers, Gabriel Guillen, Oscar Martinez, & Tyler
Ware
Stock Show News:
There are several new livestock exhibitors that will participating in stock shows this year. Jerad Staggs will be showing 2 goats. Seth Fry has returned to Sands, he will be showing 2 lambs. Kyler Nichols has a goat to show. Tyler Ware will be showing 2 rabbits.
The new Ag. Farm Facility is working great. It has three pens and is in full capacity. The Ag. Classes have lmost finished an exercise track to exercise the animals. This will help get them ready for contest.
The Sands Local Livestock Show will be held on Saturday, January 6th at 9:00 a.m. at the Ag. Shop. An Ag. Mechanics Contest has been added to the Show. You have to be a Sands FFA Member in order to compete.
Brewer
FYI
Elementary and Junior High students will be competing at the Zone UIL contest
December 6th & 7th at Klondike. They have all worked
very hard to prepare for this contest and we wish them the best of luck.
Parents are welcome to come to Klondike to watch their students compete, but
please remember, no cameras or video cameras are allowed in contest rooms. Zone
UIL results will be available in the next Hoofbeats.
CLUB
NEWS
.
Annual
Christmas Canned Food Drive
The Student Council and National Honor Society will conduct their annual canned food drive December 4th - December 11th.
The top elementary and secondary classes will win a popcorn and movie party.
Admission to the December 4th and 5th basketball games will be
4
cans for adults and 2 cans for students.
JH
OAP
The
Junior High One Act Play Community Performance will be December
10th @ 2:30.
Please attend and be entertained by the talents of these Junior High
performers.
Sands CISD
P.O. Box 218
Ackerly, TX 79713
(432) 353 –4888
http://sands.esc17.net/Hoofbeats/hoofbeats.htm
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