Issues in CR.... I say issues in USA (Part II)

Last week, I began a conversation with a friend from college who lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  We met at Cornell College, a liberal arts college whose education my father lovingly described as a LIBERAL arts college.

My dear friend has the heart and the mind of an American liberal, whereby her true idealogy manifests itself in her parenting as well as her community activism.  She and her husband could easily shelter their children with privileged peers by opting for exclusive education in the form of private schools. (I can not criticize those who do send their kids to private school. I often wish my parents had sent me to a boarding school and wonder if we could afford it if I would send my children. Believe me if money were no object, I would heartily consider it.) Instead  her children attend a city public school where they are in the 10% who are not economically disadvantaged, meaning 90% of her children's classmates are on free and reduced lunch.  While way too many parents in my generation unintentionally raise our children with models of shallow endeavors, her perspective as well as her concerns are much like she is --  both practical and deep, simple yet profound.

Her issues are in black; my repsonses are in red. (You can read last week's issues here.) 

Issue #3-There is little or no cross-age communication between schools.  Our teachers and principals have NEVER had a meeting or conference with the teachers or principals from the middle school that our students will go to.  SURELY there would be some value to a cross-age collaboration where the middles school teachers can say ‘we got a crop of kids this year who were completely clueless about primary numbers, we need to be sure they get a base for this in 4^th and 5^th grade starting THIS YEAR’.  If this is the case, then I wonder if there is no communication between middle schools and highschools, too.

You are right, there is not much cross communication but this goes back to resources and time.  This week, however, I had a meeting along with the other 8th grade History teachers with a 9th grade Geography teacher who is going to outline what they would like kids to know before they get to high school.  I am skeptical, however, because we already have so much in our curriculum we should cover.

In health care, it would be ideal if our health care histories were easily accessible. The same would be true for education. Wouldn't it be nice if I could log in to a data base and see the past comments and issues with each of my students? If I could see their reading level, the year that their parents got a divorce, what behavior modifications worked with them?  I imagine this would be met with legal issues because parents might not really want teachers "talking" about their child even though it might be helpful if common sense and sensitivity with integrity were practiced.

Issue #4-PARENTS-I told you about the demographics in my points on issue #2 for our school.  I have friends who have children in 4 other elementary schools in the same district throughout the city.  NOT A SINGLE ONE gets more than 8 parents at a PTA meeting.  Parents who have a spouse who stays home are maxed out because we are expected to do EVERYTHING.  After a year or two of this they scream SCREW  IT (editing on my part there; you can use your imagination on what she wrote) and vow to never volunteer again.  On a RARE occasion the families where both parents work will make monetary donations to make up for their lack of involvement.  But, overall, I find a shift in priorities to be completely self-centered rather than community centered.  Additionally, it is rare where the parents are willing to WORK WITH educators for the specific needs of their child.  Recently, I met with the education agency’s OT to talk about things we can do to get my child's fine motor skills a little better.  She couldn’t believe that there was a parent out there willing to do stuff at home.  That is completely CRAZY.

I agree. I am realizing that parents should do more than we think; we (as parents) are the primary educators.  Just last week, I'm researched books and programs to help Anna Cate learn how to read. In my class, I'm going to start posting online some enrichment activities for the advanced students. I'm going to invite my smart and gifted kids up for lunch to talk with them about how they would like to go beyond the basics. I hope parents will  encourage this scholarly interest even though I'm not sure if I should require it.

One of the reasons I regret that I have to work because I would love to spend time in the schools volunteering with my children. I don't have any ideas or thoughts on this issue.  I'm noticing the vast difference of percentage of parents at elementary school functions rather than ours. I wonder if schools do something to discourage involvement at the middle school level, or if parents just get tired, or if the kids just don't want the parents around so the parents oblige. More posts on this issue in the future.

Issue #5-Learning needs to be interesting! I’d like to see a student who is in high school language arts class offered MODERN FICTION or MODERN NON-FICTION options when told that they need to do a book report.  I don’t know this first hand, yet, but there is still a stuffy old reading list floating around out there.  Meanwhile, kids are turned off by reading because they are sick of Hemmingway and Shakespeare.  This happens at the grade school level, as well.  GREAT EFFORT should be made to make reading interesting to them!!

Since I'm not an English teacher, I don't feel qualified to support or defend this concept. I do know that in general, students find more success if whatever they are reading or learning interests them, but I think good teachers can make "stuffy old reading lists" interesting. 

In Virginia, I am not aware that modern fiction or modern-non fiction isn't offered, although I'm sure the classics are mandatorily taught. Last year, I had a group of students who were avid readers.  They were the easiest group of students I have ever taught as they were always reading and they were always reading modern titles. Now I wish I would have asked more of them what they though about the classics/"old stuffy stuff."

As a side note, I know there is a lot of back and forth from that movie and other movies on education unions.  I actually disagree-somewhat with all the negative press unions are getting.  Women who were teachers back when I was a kid were laid off for a full year if they delivered a baby during the school year.  Education unions have done GOOD THINGS for the level of respect teachers deserve and often don’t get.  Of course, you hear of unions who have done stupid, stupid things (like the NYC union having the ‘rubber room’ for teachers to sit in…sometimes for YEARS…when they are put on probation until someone in the union and the school district can get together to decide to fire them or not).  But I really think the press has given this so much coverage to these one-off situations that it has lead the general public to believe that unions don’t have the good of the student in mind.  I would like to think that they usually do.  And in cases where they don’t, I would hope they are getting pressure from their members to change their ways.

And this leads me to next week's topic: unions and teachers, where you will hear from a mutual friend and her opposing view about unions. I'll save my comments on this for next week.

Whatever issues you are thinking on in your community or in your school, I hope you feel compelled to get involved on some level as a parent or as a citizen.  I just hope we as a country don't get to the point on public education where we say screw it.

The fruit of liberal education is not learning, but the capacity and desire to learn, not knowledge, but power.   ~Charles W. Eliot