Dear editor,
The Jocie Brooks letter, GP Vanier’s ‘flex days’ equate to 14 days of lost instruction for students (Dec. 1 Record) isn’t devoid of truths, but I feel as if it is from the perspective of a biased and uneducated lens.
As a senior student attending G.P Vanier, I am shocked at the words written. In this student’s individual case, the days may be perceived as a waste of time, but for those in rigorous academic classes, the days are paramount to achieving success. Unlike the letter writer claims, G.P Vanier isn’t the only secondary school in the Valley that had flex days.
Highland Secondary has flex days, although they are on Fridays rather than on Wednesdays. The concern for taxpayers’ moneys being used to only semi-fund one school, in this case, is false. A visit to the Highland’s website will reveal the unrelated school has 29 flex days. Shockingly, this was absent from the letter in question.
Flex days provide a crucial day of re-testing as well as a much-needed moment for studying for those who would otherwise be drowned in a myriad of assignments. If the biggest issue with the day is that a student wishes to attend school instead of staying at home, I am left wondering why they simply just do not attend the flex day. Currently, in Grade 12, I truly am left wondering if the day I used religiously to catch up on work and re-test will be disposed of, simply because one student was bored.
Cooper Ostashek,
Cumberland