Editor,
I believe that Fairfax County should use its money to help improve bus seats. Think about children, venturing into the cold in the morning, freezing half to death. They walk like zombies onto the bus. Passing through a gloomy walkway onto their seat, they sit onto sad, cold seat. This is something that many students experience in the morning.
This is a terrible start to the day. Not only does it decrease children’s learning capacity, but it also makes them unfocused. By doing even the tiniest bit, such as changing the material of the seats, or even just adding a fuzzy floor, can help improve a student’s mood and help them get ready for school. I think that adding a fuzzy floor would be beneficial to students’ mood during the day, because feeling the humid and slippery floor when it’s raining is very unappealing and uncomfortable. Students often encounter headaches and find it difficult to learn, because of these situations.
Another proposition for schools would be to add retractable tables to buses. This can allow for many functions for students. For example, they can use these to rest their heads in the morning . First, students are obviously going to be tired both in the morning and the afternoon. Just by being able to have somewhere to lie on is very helpful towards students’ learning. This can also help students be up and ready for school. Second, they can also use these tables for work. They can catch up on late homework, and put their computers on the tables to work on. Instead of finishing this at home, they can finish it before they have outside of school activities. Finishing before getting home might seem like a miniscule issue, but distractions like phones, laptops, and games prevent you from doing your homework when you get home. Having a table on the bus can encourage bus-time as a good time for work, while also putting off other distractions.
In conclusion, I believe that school buses should have more amenities, to allow students to use their time more effectively and faster. This is because they will have better ways to relax or work on the bus and use their time wisely.
Alex Lu
Falls Church
