Oberlin High School has very little school funding. The students have little faith in themselves, thanks in large part to a lot of their teachers, I think. Here’s a great idea for them though: Tell the kids to just go to Wal-Mart and spend their time and money there. It is now going to be one of the most popular parts of Oberlin. The school complains of not having funding, yet the town has enough money to build a new Wal-Mart SuperCenter. This is preposterous.

Oberlin is a small town that is mostly covered in a college campus — one of the most prestigious colleges in the world. The college is very wealthy, but it doesn’t have money to help out the high school that is around the corner from it. The heat in the high school is very comfortable when you are wearing an undershirt, a long sleeve shirt and a hooded sweatshirt. On really cold days, teachers refuse to teach in their classrooms, because it is colder in there then it is outside. In fact, Oberlin High School students should be the most educated students in Lorain County. They are the only school district in the county that has not had a snow day all year.

Oberlin High School’s suspension percentage (for fist fighting) is increasing tremendously every year. So why not just tell the children to save their time and cut out the fighting and just put all their energy into planning what they want to buy at the new store being built? Maybe the suspension rate will go down.

The students should be encouraged every day in school. That is one of my philosophies. So encourage each student every chance that you get to wear less clothing so that they can catch a cold inside the school and stay home warm in their beds. Then their parents can run to the supercenter for some cough syrup and soup.

The new shopping center will be big enough to employ much of the school’s population. Let’s look at the advantages of this situation; the students get an early start on their career and their job doesn’t include the line, “Would you like fries with that, sir?” It’s a win-win situation. The school did its part by teaching the children to read and write at the elementary school level. They now have enough knowledge to stock shelves and take inventory of merchandise and add prices on a cash register.

So why not cut out high school all together in the small town of Oberlin? There are jobs that can be obtained with elementary school knowledge — it would certainly conserve heat and the little money that the school does receive can go toward retirement funds for the new workers of the Wal-Mart store. All of the teachers can relocate to another school district and teach where there is more money available and less violence in the school. That way, they get paid more and they don’t have to risk getting hurt trying to break up a fight.

The principal has enough education to get a great job working for a company such as College Board, coming up with questions to ask the rich schools’ student populations on the upcoming standardized tests.

The idea of sending high school students to work at Wal-Mart is beneficial to all who would like to see the students at Oberlin High School succeed at something without freezing them to death while they watch the college students learn and live comfortably. They would even get to earn their own money, which is more than a lot of college students can say about themselves. Many of the high school students would benefit from this opportunity if school were eliminated from their worries of everyday life. Well, at least after the age of 12 or 13. This should be a deep consideration of the Board of Education.

Brianna Stevenson, a Ninde scholar, is a junior at Oberlin High School. She plays soccer, basketball and softball and works at Gibson's.