Typically, as I ride through Newton my mind focuses mostly on the road but reserves a bit of space for random reflection. And so it happened recently as I criss-crossed the city, from Brae Burn Country Club on Commonwealth Avenue to Wells Avenue on the Needham line.
Most cyclists, and motorists for that matter, will tell you that our roads are in wretched repair right now, and I would agree. It surprises me since we experienced a mild, relatively dry winter. For whatever reason, pot holes abound as does uneven pavement. Fortunately, I ride a thick-wheeled hybrid bike built to absorb the shocks of coarse terrain. For the sake of everyone on wheels, however, I hope that the city pays greater attention to road repair in coming days.
Speaking of which, Chestnut Street has for years been the site of endless digging and repaving. Passage from Beacon Street to the Route 9 underpass remains treacherous when open and prone to constant detour through neighboring streets. It must be noisy and inconvenient living there or nearby. I wonder if the various utilities and city agencies are coordinating the work to overlap projects whenever feasible. Wouldn’t it be nice to experience one calendar year without disruption on this most essential north-south passage through town?
On April 26, six weeks later than normal, high school spring sports finally began. Why the delay? The MIAA permitted football and other fall sports, cancelled earlier, to hold a special season in 2021. Consequentially, tennis has lost most of its training time prior to the onset of match play, and we will not hold an individual tournament at all. We are all glad, to be sure, that we have a season this spring, but as we lost last spring’s season without any offer to make it up in the fall, we wonder why other sports were given such a chance this spring at our expense.
Complicating matters, our practices begin an hour later, at 4:30, thanks to the 9 AM start time for the high schools. Next year will apparently follow suit. No one, it seems, wants to return to the 7:40 starting time, and to begin high school at 8 or 8:15 to allow for a 2:45 or 3 PM finish would cost the city 1.5 million dollars in added transportation fees. The only hope for a reasonable starting time for extracurricular activities lies in compressing the school schedule, or so I have been told.
When I started teaching at South in the Stone Age, we began at 8 AM and ended by 2:30 or earlier. I challenge anyone to prove that students of that era, who spent less time in class than our current crop, were more poorly educated on average. It was also the custom back then to start activities during the tutorial block after school. If students needed to visit their teachers at that time, they would arrive at practice with a note in hand from the teacher and no loss in honor. It worked. Right now after-school activities cannot begin until the end of tutorial time, and that seems a luxury we can no longer afford. I should mention that other schools like Lynnfield High School, equal to ours in quality, still begin at 8 AM and end at 2:30. Teams and clubs meet there from 3-5, and students are home in plenty of time for dinner except on days of competition and performance. Here such a reasonable schedule is but a memory.
All in all, despite these complaints, I am grateful this spring to witness the slow emergence of normality in the Garden City. Heck, it’s even legal for me to bike around without my mask on. I will put it on before I enter this cafe to purchase some hot cocoa: hold the whipped cream!
I really enjoy hearing Bob’s thoughts as he meanders through the city. He provides us with the perspective of many years of engagement in the community.
Bob-The change in sports schedule did not only affect tennis this spring. All spring sports have a reduced schedule this year. In fact, all 4 seasons this year were reduced in duration. My son plays football and baseball and both seasons were significantly reduced as were fall and winter seasons. I think the MIAA did the best they could but in my opinion should have let them play football in the fall as usual and there would have been less of an impact on all seasons this year. As far as being prepared, you can partly blame the NPS administration. The Dual County League that Newton South is part of allowed out-of-season coaching this year, but NPS chose to not allow it for Newton South.
Interesting points. We know that outdoor sports have much lower rates of spreading the coronavirus than indoor ones. Tennis lies at the bottom of the list as the players are apart and the balls apparently don’t host the aerosols for long. I suppose that because football players are in closer contact, the MIAA exercised extreme caution. Was there scientific evidence to justify that decision? I don’t know. Soccer played in the fall, and I haven’t heard of any spread there.
It seems that everyone was groping in the dark, and that I shouldn’t be too harsh in my judgment of decisions made during the Pandemic. “Don’t worry, be happy,” everyone coaches me, so I suppose I should take that advice!
(new to this blog and first time poster here). Wanted to clarify a point above.
There IS a feasible scenario with minimal costs where high schools could start at ~8:15 and end by 3pm.