Back to school time!
Butterflies in your stomach!
But you get to see your friends and your teachers!
And watch this to see why public school is great!
Let’s remember what matters most: Friendship. Kindness. Creativity. Joy. Compassion. Integrity. Good citizenship. Thinking. Learning. Goodness. Heart. Character.
In case you wondered, the video is from Ossining, New York.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Great video – it is important to remember that parents are the most important reason that public district schools are in jeopardy. They tend to not vote, and when they do, they vote to re-elect the same people or ideologies that are intended to disrupt or dismantle the public district education system.
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In parents defense, politicians speak differently when they are IN our schools at campaign events.
You should hear them- it’s like night and day. One would have to follow this stuff quite closely to see the bait and switch.
My state representative has nothing good to say about Ohio public schools when he’s in Columbus, but when he’s here he vows his eternal devotion to our schools.
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That’s more of an excuse than it is a defense. If politicians lie, then do NOT re-elect them – or worse yet – elect them to higher offices, as is so often the case. Or, heaven forbid, they run for the Board themselves. It all starts and ends with the voters!
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Arky…..there’s no getting around it because 1 is just as bad as the other. The next one elected could wind up being worse than the 1 voted out! Parents are concerned with education, but they are more concerned with being able to provide for their family (food, clothing, college, retirement). Lots of parents are unaware of what happens in public schools because they don’t have the opportunity to volunteer in the classroom during the school day (because they have to work for necessities!). This is the designed plan…. to have parents distracted and disenfranchised so that they don’t know what’s going on with the $600 billion in education tax dollars and how it is spent. If only more parents knew or had the time to learn.
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Your logic is spot on – keep them poor and uneducated and you will maintain and strengthen political power – regardless of party affiliation. Your opening sentence is illogical – continue to vote them out and sooner or later you will will get what is needed. Simply giving in or giving up – and especially not being informed or not voting are indefensible. For parents to take truly care of the children, they must plan for the future as well as the immediacy. Anything less is certainly predictable, even pragmatic, but not what could be deemed as ‘proper parenting. How else will children learn to be activists in their own future? And why not address the possibility of the parents running for office? I ran for State Senate, in 2014. My son ran for the same office in 2016. We both lost, but Arizona is very Red, and racist, etc. All that you hear about the bad things in Arizona are true – and worse than described. Arizona is a great place to live – if you ignore the politics, are educated(from elsewhere), well-to-do, and are White.
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I would. E thrilled to see any politician stand up and say they support public schools and want to make them better. And they oppose privatization, including charters. Let me know when you find one.
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Myself and my son – we both ran on platforms to strengthen education. Lost by wide margins – and both of have excellent qualifications. Like I said – Arizona is great – except for the politics!
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They’re going to have to speak up,though. Because politicians take them for granted.
I was looking at the coverage of the Illinois “public school funding bill”. There is no discussion of what it means it for public schools.
Public school families in the 600 districts in Illinois have no idea what is in that bill, and what it means for their schools. The deal was brokered behind closed doors and the entire focus is on vouchers.
I hope public school families don’t get a nasty surprise- it’s like there wasn’t a single person there advocating on their behalf. They don’t even bother to address the impact on public schools.
How do you pass a “historic” school funding measure and completely ignore 90% of families in existing public schools? It’s as if public school families don’t deserve any consideration or information- the lawmakers know we’ll all dutifully return the incumbents no matter what happens to our schools.
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Maybe this is a silly question? What does it mean….Union Free School District?
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Hi there, A union free school district is a district resulting from a “union” of multiple common school districts, “free” from the restrictions that previously barred them from operating high schools. Union free school districts are governed by a board of education composed of between three and nine members.
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So, a union free district does not have to follow state mandates….testing, common core etc..? Just trying to educate myself 🙂
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This term is a legacy term from the 1800s joining school districts together to provide a high school. These schools are NOT charters schools and adhere to all state/federal public school laws and regulations and do have labor unions. This term is confusing, thank you for asking.
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To further clarify, “union free” means no union with the municipality, separate governance for both the school and town/city.
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What fun!!!
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WATCH! this video if you want to get happy! Such fun. Short and peppy. Your day will change for the better. Just believe it! Thanks Diane.
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I dunno, I love the concept of public schools, but I’m having a really hard time with the actual public school my younger daughter is going to. So far I’ve been asked to sign an attendance policy, a homework policy, an ID policy, a technology policy and a uniform policy. They all basically boil down to the same thing: do it our way or your kid gets detention. My daughter has already gotten a detention for what basically amounted to a misunderstanding about parents having to sign off on the reading log every night (in the thirteen years I was in public schools never once did my parents have to sign my homework, let alone every night; I never had a uniform or an ID either). So my daughter has already gotten into trouble for what was an adult error, so she had to miss the only 15 minutes a day that kids are allowed out to breathe, in order to “do” her assignment, which was already done, it just wasn’t signed. She was also hassled at lunch for not having her ID for the first three days even though the school has gone to a policy of free lunch for all regardless of need. She didn’t have her ID because she hadn’t been given one yet since she was new to the school. She did finally get lunch, but she only had about a minute to inhale part of it before lunch was over.
My daughter chose to switch to this school after going to a private progressive school (don’t ask me why, I’m not entirely sure, although I think it has a lot to do with the fact that her neighborhood friend goes there), so she’s really motivated to make this work and be a “good” kid. So now she’s in a dither worried about getting in trouble again. I find it heartbreaking to see this, yet no one else seems to see the problem. Of course kids should get punished for breaking the rules, right? Sigh. For three years she was treated like a unique human being. Now she’s required to conform with the crowd or else.
For the record, this is not a charter school. We live in a working-class neighborhood and the majority of her classmates are Hispanic. The more affluent Village of Oak Park to our northwest doesn’t require uniforms and has been cutting back on homework and punitive policies. But I guess our local poor kids need this kind of “discipline”. Again, sigh.
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Welcome to the world of public school “rephorm” style. Personally, I don’t care if they give out free lunches (we have breakfast for all but my children eat at home), I would still pack my child’s lunch because
1. it’s creepy that you need an ID# for food
2. it’s data collection
3. the kids forget the number and get hassled by lunch staff
4. They get very little time to eat and having to stand in line to get food leaves some kids with only a few minutes to eat…30 min lunch- 15 minutes line wait-5 minute clean up =10 minute consumption time. I’ve seen 5yr old FARMs kids have 7 minutes to each lunch and clean up and that is disgusting. Children are herded in/out of the cafeteria like cattle
5.IF the school has been enlarged due to overcrowding, they NEVER enlarge the food access area or hire extra employees to staff the food line.
And if my kids were in elementary school again, I would tell the administration to take those reading logs and shove them where the sun doesn’t shine…..same with the useless homework (busywork). Both of my children HATE reading due to those practices in elementary school.
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Get involved in the school whenever possible, do you have a principal’s advisory council? Does the principal and/or superintendent host parent coffees? If there are policies that aren’t developmentally appropriate, set up meetings with the vice principal or principal and bring your research showing why these aren’t appropriate/effective. Changes can and do happen within a school but concerns need to be voiced, research often needs to be presented, and examples of viable alternatives help too. If this doesn’t work, attend school board meetings and comment during the public time or better yet run for school board or encourage like-minded parents/community members to do so. It is important to find a group of allies in the community and within the school. One of the many great things about public school is that they do respond to the public and are accountable to the community.
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I’m shocked that a public school would require uniforms. Most public school parents would raise up in revolt.
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*Rise up in revolt.
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@Joe: What planet have you been living on? Many public school systems all over this land have mandatory uniform policies.
Baltimore Maryland is one. See:
http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/Page/24475
I remember back in 1983, when Baltimore brought in voluntary uniforms. The children (mostly) were delighted to wear the uniforms, because some children were teased and bullied when they wore shabby clothes. Voluntary uniforms virtually ended the teasing.
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Charles: In central NJ, regular public schools requiring uniforms is quite rare, infinitesimal. I know that some of the big city NJ schools require uniforms but they are usually charter schools. All the public schools have basic dress codes but requiring uniforms is really rare. I guess a majority of the parents in Baltimore were in favor of school uniforms.
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Your first paragraph is a good summary of my feelings, too.
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I go through the same thing each year, signing papers about homework, curriculum, dress code, technology, attendance, etc. My son said it best when he said, “We’re already enrolled in the school, why do we have to keep signing agreements?”. It makes no sense but I think it’s protection for the schools so parents won’t accuse them later of being misinformed. I wish I understood it better as I watch my kids in panic about all of the rules and regulations.
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It is. Like the agreements that you sign when you license software or the stuff in the employee handbook at your job, these are often cover-your-tushy legalize. If a problem arises–some kid bullies another kid or is sent home for inappropriate dress or is caught plagiarizing or vandalizing or sexting or whatever and it ends up in court or in arbitration by the district–the school can point to the document and say, “We informed you. You agreed to this.” There are handbooks for administrators full of boilerplates developed to cover all these contingencies. School administrators traverse, every day, a legal mine field, and if they had a dime for every time a parent threatened to sue in a year’s time, they could purchase a membership at Mar-a-Lago with the proceeds.
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He must be an Ironman Triathlete. I saw no sign of sweat.
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Now, let’s compare that with Eva’s charter schools where the children must be totally obedient. They can’t even squirm. Their eyes must track the teacher or they are punished. They must walk in straight lines between classes with their cheeks puffed out and they are not allowed to talk – anywhere – unless they are called on and if they don’t have the correct response, they are bullied, ridiculed, and punished.
That video represents what we are fighting to save.
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Sorry to be a downer, but I did not enjoy this. The video ends wth the sign proclaiming “students first” yet the first half of the video is centered on a white male in the lead role traipsing around school to school. To me, that does not speak to a “students first” mentality. I can see how a video like this is fun for staff moral and maybe even students. However, I think it would be ten times more powerful if the video were to place students at the center and are seen for more than just karaoke singers. Hopefully their classroom practice is different than what they’re preaching here.
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Consider the audience. Kids love to see the person in charge doing something goofy and not taking himself/herself too seriously.
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