The new film “Won’t Back Down” apparently celebrates the “parent trigger.” Since this film is fictional, it is likely to provide misinformation about this concept.
Parents Across America invited member Caroline Grannan, who lives in California and often writes about education, to prepare a fact sheet about the real “parent trigger,” which was passed as a law in that state in early 2010.
All of us who are frustrated and occasionally outraged by current federal and state education policy owe a debt of thanks to Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post.
Her daily blog “The Answer Sheet” is a source of sustenance, information, and wisdom.
She has provided a regular outlet for teachers, researchers, and everyone else who has important things to say about high-stakes testing, privatization, the war on teachers, the politics of education, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and almost everything else that is on the minds of education-minded people these days.
When my last book was published, I was very fortunate to be interviewed by Valerie on C-SPAN. I had never met her. The hour passed very quickly, as we enjoyed the conversation. Over the past two years, many of my articles have appeared on her blog. She helped me find my audience, as she helps educators everywhere know that they are not alone.
Thank you, Valerie, for all you do to encourage the people who dedicate their lives every day to educating the nation’s children. Thank you for your support for teachers, principals, and administrators. Thank you for understanding parents and children. Thank you for your wisdom, your courage, and your steadfastness.
This is a site for discussing better education for all.
You know that.
And you know that I won’t permit comments that are blatantly offensive.
I am the judge of what is offensive.
It seems that one of my posts, in which a teacher asked whether parents were always the best judge of what is best for their children, got published on a home-schooling website. I don’t know which site it was, but for hours I have been receiving offensive comments. Some describe teachers as perverts. Some curse teachers for daring to think that they ever know better than any parent. Some curse public education in vile terms.
I have deleted almost all of them because of the level of abusiveness and scurrilousness.
They can continue ranting on their website. Not here.
If anyone wants to disagree with anything printed here, welcome.
But mind your manners and your language.
Writing in response to this post, a reader has another view about the rights and responsibilities of parents:
| I’m not satisfied with the way this question is being framed; sometimes just taking an opposing stance to a bad argument isn’t correct.Although parents don’t always “know what’s best” for their child, there is overall no safer repository for the child’s rights and interests than in their hands. Guardianship is a fundamental obligation of parents, as much as a “right”. The first principle for legal defense of children is respect for their families, because there actually isn’t anywhere children can be put which is capable of meeting their needs, or is safer for them. Sometimes the law has to step in and override the parent’s obligations, in instances of parental neglect or abuse, but that’s a grave step, which calls for utmost diligence and many counter-checks to prevent abuse by careless authority. Most parents I know would give their lives for their child, and call it a bargain.
The question of authority in the schools must be framed in those terms. Is psychoactive medication “best” for my child, even if it makes him easier to handle at school? Do the district’s attendance policies warrant their filing a legal CHINS order, and removing my child from her family? My own district once threatened to file a CHINS on a sixteen year old student of mine, with cerebral palsy, because her mother failed to get her down the stairs in time to meet the scheduled pickup stops when the girl had her period. The solution of modifying the bus pickup schedule would have been too expensive, so this accomplished and delightful child was quaking in shame and terror, afraid of being taken from her low-income immigrant family and consigned to a group home. Here is this morning’s heart-searing update on the inhuman “school to prison pipeline” professionals determined was best for Mississippi children: Let’s refine our analysis, so we hold to the concept that professional educators can offer a public program that meets the needs of children and the obligations of society to assure a solid program. If parents find it fails their child, lets give them respectful recourse to the courts to modify the offering. On the other hand, if parents wish for specific private facilities for their child’s education, they don’t have any automatic right to demand tax revenue to support that program. Within that framework, exceptions can be individually crafted. I would have been prepared to testify for my own students special need, if my district hadn’t relented. |
A retired teacher writes about her experiences teaching in an inner-city school in Hartford, Connecticut:
I retired last June, after nearly 38 years of teaching at M. L. King Elementary School, in Hartford, CT. ,one of the poorest mid-sized cities in the nation. As I listen to the President, educational leaders, media commentators, and many in the concerned public, I am always distressed by the degree of blame and scorn heaped upon “failing” city schoolteachers and their “obstructionist “ unions. While I believe that the expressed concerns regarding the state of education in our poorest communities are valid, the solutions seem to be leaving many of our most vulnerable students even further behind.
I began my teaching career with a Masters in Urban Education, from Columbia University. Over the years, I earned 90 college credits beyond my masters, all in efforts to improve instruction. My last year of teaching, as in most other years, I was at school daily until 5, 6, 7, or even 8:00 PM. In addition, I took work home at night, and over the weekend as well. There are countless other teachers just like me. With all of our training, experience, and effort, we faced “failure” on a daily basis.
With the advent of “magnet”, and “charter” schools, I watched the population of King School decrease by more than half. It had been, for years, a stable community school, with parents, children, and sometimes grandchildren being taught by the same teachers who spent their entire professional lives serving this community. Out of district families often requested special permission to attend the school. Over time, the student population of King School has decreased by more than half, with numbers of students leaving to attend “choice” schools. Unfortunately, many, if not most of the students and families who left, were those who had greater economic, educational, emotional, and social advantages. It takes time, knowledge, and energy for parents to apply to these choice schools. The application process is now on line. Those families without time, computer skills, or even basic literacy are excluded. Those students left behind require more resources, yet in the current decentralized, competitive school model, they receive far less.
Despite all of these disadvantages, Martin Luther King School teachers have demonstrated marked improvement on test scores for two consecutive years. They are no longer considered a “failing school”. Yet in spite of these efforts, teachers were recently told that their school will be shut down. Not immediately, but phased out over three or four years. King School will be replaced by a charter school. Teachers will gradually be laid off. The nine teachers who are being cut this year have been informed that they might not have the option to transfer to another Hartford Public School. It seems to me that we have stepped through the looking glass, with all reason and fairness having evaporated.
I can’t help but compare my teaching experiences to those of my sister, who works in a nearby suburban school. She earns more money than the teachers in Hartford. She works in a brand new building, with state of the art equipment. While she is a hard working teacher, she works far fewer hours. She does not have to deal with an enormous amount of paperwork documenting her efforts to improve instruction for large numbers of academically deficient students. Her students are overwhelmingly well cared-for, and it is highly unlikely that any of them have encountered drug dealers or traumatic violence in their neighborhoods. These children have, for the most part, grown up with respect, and in turn, have been taught to respect others, particularly their teacher. She has a wealth of supplemental materials she may need, at hand. She’s never had to spend her own money on crayons, markers, copy paper, or other critical supplies. When school begins in the fall, she is treated to a teacher’s luncheon, provided by the school PTA. She has well-educated parent volunteers in her classroom every day, to assist her students while she delivers small group reading instruction. At holiday time, she comes home with bags full of gifts given to her by the children, and their parents. At the end of the school year, she gets expensive gift certificates, cooperatively given by the parents in her class, as a thank you gift for all she has done. Most importantly, she is not blamed for her students’ failure to meet proficiency. They are usually all at, or above proficiency. She is a member of a teacher union that bargains for improvements in teachers’ pay and working conditions (amount of preparation time, additional duties, etc.). It is a source of counsel and support, should she be harassed or mistreated.
Many teachers in Hartford are presently trapped, due to an economic situation which has resulted in few teacher openings, but this will soon change. The “baby boom” generation of teachers is about to retire, and cities and towns will be in competition to hire the best and the brightest. It doesn’t take an Ivy League education to see the stark disparity in the respect afforded teachers throughout the state and the nation. When my generation entered the ranks of teachers determined to fight the “War on Poverty” in our cities, we understood that resources were unevenly allocated, and we’d no doubt have to work harder than our suburban counterparts. At the same time, we worked collaboratively with administrators and, for the most part, received respect (if not appreciation) from the society at large.
In this brave new world of high stakes testing, and teacher accountability (note that there is little to measure parent, community, or student accountability), I fear for our most vulnerable children. Who will choose to subject themselves to the very vulnerable position of teaching in our poor urban districts? The disparity in pay, resources, and most importantly respect, will lead teachers to more stable careers in suburban school districts. Our city children will be left further and further behind. The tragedy of lost potential will only be magnified.
This post turned out to be controversial.
It is the view of one teacher.
Other teachers disagreed, and i printed their views too.
This is my view of the role of parents: .https://dianeravitch.net/2012/08/16/what-i-think-about-parents/
The State Commissioner of Education John White memorably said in defense of school vouchers: “To me, it’s a moral outrage that the government would say, ‘We know what’s best for your child,’” White said. “Who are we to tell parents we know better?”
This Louisiana teacher disagrees. She says that parents should expect professionals to know what’s best when it comes to education. She says that parents and teachers should work together, but that it is irresponsible to assume that parents always know what’s best for their child.
I am tired of this attitude about parents knowing what is best for their children. Parents are easily swayed by politicians, talk show hosts and preachers. They rarely understand how schools work unless they are teachers themselves or have relatives who are teachers. If their child broke his leg they would not try to fix it themselves even if they did not have health insurance. They would take the child to a health care professional. So what in God’s name is wrong with taking your child to an Education Professional? This debasement of teachers and deprofessionalization of of K-12 education has got to go before we get a whole generation of uneducated, dysfunctional adults.
Certainly they should have a say and be part of the decision making about the child’s education but parents also starve, beat, tie up, and rape their children. They also spoil them rotten and don’t expect them to do anything and teach them that they are “entitled”.You have to have a license to drive a car, for your dog, and to practice most professions. No license is required to be a parent. I have also seen parents demand inappropriate programs for their child and not accept the truth that a child with a 30 IQ should not be mainstreamed into a college prep program. I had a parent swear that her multihandicapped son could rollerskate when he could not even turn over on his own. But I had to clean dried feces off the little boy’s butt.
I agree that some school programs are bad. They have no vision for the children’s success. They think poor kids are in a pipeline to prison. I have known some bad teachers, some lazy, some incompetent, some functionally illiterate, two drunks and some just not bright enough to teach. But at least 95% of teachers do their best and are competent and do better as they get experience. Some of the best teachers I have known started as paraprofessionals.
Programs may be inadequate or inappropriate for some students but that is not the fault of the teachers but of the politicians and upper administrators. That is part of why I stayed in Severe/Profound. I could pretty much do what I wanted because most people thought my children could not learn anything. I could keep away from the politics pretty well until I came to Louisiana. But this place is a mess from hell.
My article with the title above appeared on CNN.com.
They heard from you. They invited me to respond and this is the article I wrote.
I think that if we all speak up again and again and again and again, and tell the truth, supported by facts and experience, our voices will be heard.
Write letters to the editor, comment on blogs, speak up at public meetings, do what you can, when you can, where you can.
Your actions will encourage others.
And that is how a movement is built.
From the ground up.
Not with billions of dollars, but with millions of willing hands and hearts and minds.
Over 250 parents in Cherokee County, Georgia, signed an ad directed at their legislators to tell them:
We support our public schools.
Stop the budget cuts.
The Cherokee County public schools took a budget cut of $26.5 million this year.
If the Legislature approves charter schools, parents will fight with one another over dwindling resources and space.
A reader said that public school parents in Athens, Georgia, created this ad and put it in the local newspaper. Would your parents do this for your school?
Now, that’s parent support!
A reader writes–and I agree with him. A good place to start is to go to the website of Parents Across America. This is a national organization of activist parents who understand what is happening. They oppose high-stakes testing and privatization and they support teachers and professionalism. They are smart and they are fearless. Learn about PAA and reach out to the parents you know. You have interests in common: You both care about the same kids.
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