08-10-2013, 04:37 PM
Politicizing and proselytizing through education is not welcome, but with private or homeschooling, we can choose to use a particular school or curriculum. That choice is not available when in the education system; you can supplement with your own chosen material, but you cannot unteach what they spend all day learning and not all districts and teachers keep personal opinions to themselves.
No two of us will view this topic the same, because we've all had different personal experiences to frame our perceptions. My opinion on the value of public education was dramatically different before I had a child of my own, and further still from when we realized my son needed additional support beyond the norm. For my family, we saw the ugly side and made a choice to discard it rather than continue to hope we got a more caring teacher the next year. I'm pleased to hear others experienced better, but generalizations come in a lot of different shapes and sizes.
As for generalizing, it is human nature to do so once repeated behaviors in a given group are noted. In my family's case, our son had five teachers, of which two seemed to understand the job of teacher is more than just a job when contributing to (not solely responsible for) the development of young minds. The other three balked and became rude at the idea of parental involvement in our child's education; I'd have been positively giddy at an occasional parent-teacher conference to discuss strengths and weaknesses that could use more work at home, but to get one, we had to demand them under the blanket of IEP because there never seemed to be time. The other two understood and shared areas our son needed supplemental work in notes as needed without needing to stomp and shout, but with only 40% of his educators showing any concern for their students' development beyond checking the boxes of bare minimum requirements in their jobs, it is still a statistic that speaks to me.
I certainly did not expect teachers to parent my child for me but teaching has to be a partnership with the parents to further their educations, and for the other three that made up the other 60%, the only "cooperation" they wanted or responded to was purchased supplies when demanded (up to and including a few hundred dollars on color toner cartridges for a printer), food and presents for holiday parties, and chaperones on field trips. Where actual education was concerned, we were kept in the dark despite requests for information to help our own child. While I hear the arguments that other teachers elsewhere want and beg for parental involvement, I have not seen it. I have seen the opposite which was detrimental to my child, so please forgive me for having strong opinions to the contrary of teachers' pleas that parents and parental involvement are the significant contributor to failing education within the public school system because I've witnessed and experienced quite the opposite.
On the subject of special needs, not all special needs kids are put in those low headcount classrooms; the norm for our local districts is most children with IEPs are mainstreamed in regular classrooms, with regular teachers, and the same high student counts per teacher, with minimal access to supplemental resources. Local districts failing standardized testing repeatedly blame special needs kids for lower scores according to the press releases year after year. Every parent of those special needs kids that I've spoken to are beyond frustrated they are not given the information to help raise those scores by working in coordination with the teachers to teach their children. It makes no sense. Regional differences in function? Maybe, but it's what my family and many others have seen and experienced first-hand, which somehow contradicts the generalization that parents' apathy is the sole cause.
No two of us will view this topic the same, because we've all had different personal experiences to frame our perceptions. My opinion on the value of public education was dramatically different before I had a child of my own, and further still from when we realized my son needed additional support beyond the norm. For my family, we saw the ugly side and made a choice to discard it rather than continue to hope we got a more caring teacher the next year. I'm pleased to hear others experienced better, but generalizations come in a lot of different shapes and sizes.
As for generalizing, it is human nature to do so once repeated behaviors in a given group are noted. In my family's case, our son had five teachers, of which two seemed to understand the job of teacher is more than just a job when contributing to (not solely responsible for) the development of young minds. The other three balked and became rude at the idea of parental involvement in our child's education; I'd have been positively giddy at an occasional parent-teacher conference to discuss strengths and weaknesses that could use more work at home, but to get one, we had to demand them under the blanket of IEP because there never seemed to be time. The other two understood and shared areas our son needed supplemental work in notes as needed without needing to stomp and shout, but with only 40% of his educators showing any concern for their students' development beyond checking the boxes of bare minimum requirements in their jobs, it is still a statistic that speaks to me.
I certainly did not expect teachers to parent my child for me but teaching has to be a partnership with the parents to further their educations, and for the other three that made up the other 60%, the only "cooperation" they wanted or responded to was purchased supplies when demanded (up to and including a few hundred dollars on color toner cartridges for a printer), food and presents for holiday parties, and chaperones on field trips. Where actual education was concerned, we were kept in the dark despite requests for information to help our own child. While I hear the arguments that other teachers elsewhere want and beg for parental involvement, I have not seen it. I have seen the opposite which was detrimental to my child, so please forgive me for having strong opinions to the contrary of teachers' pleas that parents and parental involvement are the significant contributor to failing education within the public school system because I've witnessed and experienced quite the opposite.
On the subject of special needs, not all special needs kids are put in those low headcount classrooms; the norm for our local districts is most children with IEPs are mainstreamed in regular classrooms, with regular teachers, and the same high student counts per teacher, with minimal access to supplemental resources. Local districts failing standardized testing repeatedly blame special needs kids for lower scores according to the press releases year after year. Every parent of those special needs kids that I've spoken to are beyond frustrated they are not given the information to help raise those scores by working in coordination with the teachers to teach their children. It makes no sense. Regional differences in function? Maybe, but it's what my family and many others have seen and experienced first-hand, which somehow contradicts the generalization that parents' apathy is the sole cause.
BSBA, HR / Organizational Mgmt - Thomas Edison State College, December 2012
- TESC Chapter of Sigma Beta Delta International Honor Society for Business, Management and Administration
- Arnold Fletcher Award
AAS, Environmental, Safety, & Security Technologies - Thomas Edison State College, December 2012
AS, Business Administration - Thomas Edison State College, March 2012
- TESC Chapter of Sigma Beta Delta International Honor Society for Business, Management and Administration
- Arnold Fletcher Award
AAS, Environmental, Safety, & Security Technologies - Thomas Edison State College, December 2012
AS, Business Administration - Thomas Edison State College, March 2012