What percentage of parents are qualified to provide reasoned feedback on said educational requirements? And how should those be evaluated? How should concerned parents present their concerns, private meeting, tiktok, FB, school board. Crazy always escalates and if you haven’t experienced it, it’s a ride. Not many parents understand midlines. Fact
To the first question, first and foremost, feedback doesn't always have to rise to the level of "qualified," it really depends on the topic. Many issues that are discussed are not educational requirement related but more procedural implementations for various things (mask mandates, for example). I think you would find that to the extent that curriculums are presented, you'd get very little "up in arms" type responses. But let me give you a specific example: A test was implemented for our elementary school child a few years ago. The entire class (actually all the classes for the grade that received the test) did extremely poor on it (top end scores were in the mid-C range). Naturally, I among other parents, were interested in what the test covered. I actually scheduled a review of the test at our school (we were not allowed to see physical copies of the tests and the results only an online view of each question and a corresponding indicator of what my child answered to it...really weird). One of the questions was a ridiculous example of some of the goofy things you see online making fun of common core (not bashing common core as an educational tool, but some of the examples are pretty out there...thought it was a joke until I saw this first hand). Within a week, the school expressed that these tests would no longer count towards the child's academic progress and they will only serve as a "pre-test" to see where the children stand on information they have not received yet (this was a math test of material that had not been covered). The county/school made a mistake in issuing the exam. Would they have reversed course so quickly if the parents had not challenged them? Where were the experts in that scenario? People make mistakes. It doesn't always take an expert to point out the mistakes. It's not unlike situations that happen in a hospital. You have to be an advocate for your loved one. You are surrounded by many experts, but they are busy and they make mistakes. Some mistakes are more obvious than others. Sometimes they are not even actually sure of the best path themselves (and the honest teachers and doctors will TELL you this). Sometimes a little trial and error are involved, but feedback can help steer things in a productive direction. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
I think this is a great point. And you somewhat have me in a gotcha moment no doubt. Like Texas trying to change the word slavery into "involuntary relocation" in their text books. That's a problem. This would definitely come up at a school board meeting. Wouldn't that be the place to fight? Going after a single teacher would be ridiculous...they don't assemble the curriculum. It is given to them.
I don’t disagree with you at all. Most folks tend to apply the reasonable man standard, of, this sounds reasonable but are parents usually reasonable when advocating for their kids? Also we were talking about curriculum input in much of this. Direct those convos to the school board. Right now, you have activist parents looking for perceived transgressions and sending those to the Governor and DoE staff and they are being investigated. Harnessing the mob, a la Tx, is my perspective on all of this lately. None of it is good and it is not sustainable. Schools are in the middle of the cultural war and should be fact based. But it seems both sides want to change facts. America is absolutely an evil empire vs there never should have been separation of church and state. For any Government worker, we should never know their politics or religion, just my take. Ymmv Go Gators
I liked your three legged stool analogy. What it comes down to is parents should be involved in the curriculum but AT THE CLASSROOM LEVEL. Teachers have open houses at the beginning of the year for their new students and the curriculum is discussed, procedures are discussed as well as expectations. If a parent has an issue on a religious basis that they don't want their child reading, say, Harry Potter, then bring that up with the kid's teacher at the open house. It is NOT up to a bunch of "squeaky wheels" to go yelling at the school board meeting about not exposing their child to certain topics. Because guess what, there are other parents that are fine with those subjects. It's a kid by kid and parent by parent decision and the teacher can just assign the child something else that the parents approve of. BTW, this is easier in elementary school than upper grades but can be done.
Oh don't get me started on "Common Core". It drives me absolutely insane that a kid can get an answer completely correct utilizing an older methodology and still be marked down because it wasn't "done properly". An example here would be working a "long division" problem utilizing the older (repetitive subtraction) method vs the newer (area) method. As long as the child arrives at said answer and understands the conceptual, who cares how they got there. I actually did have to get in her teacher's business on that one.
Because what is considered knowledge isn’t up for a vote. Educational standards are set by the legislature and district that teachers use to guide. Parents have no say in setting the curriculum for all students. When parents enroll their children in public schools they are agreeing their child take all required coursework in order to graduate. Even those of a controversial nature. Having said that, parents do have the right to work with teachers in order to make the educational experience more enjoyable. For instance if in a high school health class there’s a sex education section with which the parents disagree, then the student can be given an alternative assignment and sit outside the classroom praying for the teacher’s condemned soul.
I hear what you're getting at, but to further your example would that same knowledge be useful to teach at an early elementary school level? I don't think my child needed to learn about sex ed in the K-3 range for example. I don't think teaching about gender orientations is correct to be taught that early either as multiple districts have pushed in the past. Like with everything else, there needs to be a degree of reasonability and wisdom applied here.
I can’t speak for Texas, but in Florida sex Ed isn’t required with the exception of abstinence only in grades 6-12. No children in elementary schools are getting any sex Ed instruction. Parents also have an opt out option, but they have to take the initiative. https://siecus.org/wp-content/uploa...-Opt-in-v.-Opt-out-Redesign-Draft-09.2018.pdf
I've read very little in the way of solutions to the teacher retention crisis. Here's one: Every school child should have a parent or guardian come and teach a 20 or 30min lesson in the school at certain benchmark ages/grades. I'm thinking ala the benchmark ages for high stakes tests, so 4th & 8th grades, also 10th or 11th and kindergarten or first. The teachers could stand aside and either offer tips, words of encouragement, or harshly critique the parent. How would this help? Well, it would help many parents get their heads out of their a$$es about the intricacies involved in teaching a 4th or 11th grade class to a group of 25 children. Many parents can't see past their own noses, let alone to the realities of what takes place in a classroom. Most don't think or care at all about anything but their own children. This requirement might change that, along with the nation-wide perception of schools, teaching, and learning. And yes, I'm serious. Make it a rule. The educators and children would get many good laughs out of it, too, which I'm told is healthy.
Fortunately they weren't grotesquely stupid here and at least allowed parents to have their kids opt out of that early class.
I left your discipline for different reasons, but one of the silver linings was that we could afford (time, money, and emotional stamina) three more kids than we would have otherwise.
A substack piece from Don Moynihan. Interesting collection of embedded links to research anecdotes and outrages I found this comment from a teacher impactful There are questions that arise in the classroom that you can't answer, you have to give ambiguous answers, and that's the part that really hurts kids. It's crippling, it's awful. *It's hard to talk about the Chicano Farmworkers’ Association and where it originated without talking about inequities…I'm not going to even touch that right now because all it takes is one parent to complain and there you go…I find myself tiptoeing around language. *I would do a huge unit on Black History Month and Women's History Month, but I can't do it at this school because I don't want the pushback. So I'm just reading from a textbook. *Parents have been outspoken about me speaking about racism in the classroom. I had a parent complain during conferences and said that racism doesn't exist anymore…In our curriculum, there was this reading written from MLK's sister's perspective. And the parent was saying I don't know why this is being discussed anymore, this was so long ago. The textbook had a question about why someone is being racist, and the parent crossed it out and wrote ‘was’ to show that racism isn't happening anymore. GOP populism is hurting the teaching profession
And this link Now experts fear that these bizarre pedophilia claims and obsessions, which started on the fringe with QAnon and have now been fully adopted by mainstream Republican politicians and organizations like Fox News, will once again lead to real-world violence. “Using this type of false and misleading rhetoric has consequences,” Daniel J. Jones, president of ADI, told VICE News. “We warned in early January 2020 that similar false conspiracy language around the 2020 election was spurring detailed discussions of attacking the U.S. Capitol. We now fear that we are going to see violent action—fueled by these false pedophilia claims— again.” The Far-Right Is Doxxing School Officials They Think Are “Groomers”
