David Brauer says he is a "New Parent in the school system". If he has a child with any real education needs, like marginal dyslexia, then he will either become a social activist willing to sacrifice a child on the alter of PC public education, or he will have to fight like a lion and suffer the same frustrations that Linda Mann speaks of. I to was once a social liberal willing to risk my children to solve the social problems of the world. What a God-awful mistake, and how completely unfair to my oldest child that was.
The problem is that we, as parents and taxpayers, are being sold one thing, an education for our children, and being given something else, and either a social action program or a recreation and after school program. Such "Bait and switch" tactics and false advertising in the business world would have the Attorney General down on them. As an "old" parent with three children having gone through the Minneapolis system I can tell you that if the school did an adequate job during the day we would not need after school programs to fill in the gaps of their education. As far as recreation and sports are concerned, I believe the Park system and parents has that obligation, and probably do a better job than schools, (paying employees a lot less money to do it too). We have the unfortunate experience of schools being used for something that they were never designed for and of course doing a really bad job of it. My child receiving a poor education so that some affluent white child can experience racial and cultural differences is not a benefit in my mind. My children were raised in a multicultural neighborhood and received almost all positive experience from this. My house and yard looked like the UN all the time, with kids from every race and ethnic group running in and out and playing in our yard and the empty lot next door. The public school system taught these children racism, classism, and pretty much all the other "isms" that are bad for children. I had children who were assaulted for being too white, and children who were taught that their Native blood was bad. They did not experience this in their community, so I think the school should stick to giving me what I pay for, the education of a child. I have no interest in a socially liberal athlete who is functionally illiterate. So if white progressive liberals truly want to avail their children of the opportunities to socialize with poor ethnic children, I suggest you move down to the poor inner-city neighborhoods and live. (And please do not attempt to tell me, and others, that the middle class white neighborhoods south of 38th are inner city.) But do not penalize the poor children with a bad education because you want the school system to provide a multi-cultural experience for your children. You probably have the where-with-all to take your children to Sylvan or some other remedial program, poor families DO NOT. Poor families depend on public schools for education, not for recreation and social conscience; they get that at home. It is time the "PUBLIC" starts demanding to get what it pays for. Children who can read, write, and do math at a level that allows them to escape poverty and hopefully become that which their potential allows. We pay for it and we should demand to have it. Also would someone please check on what teachers get paid for nine months of part time work? From that nine months take away "Teachers Conferences", Spring Break, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and every other holiday in the world, see how much time teachers actually work, and see what they actually get paid for. Good teachers probably deserve this pay, but what about some of the semi-literate bad ones that the system protects? I have had notes sent home by a second grade teacher that the second grader could have better written. And David, parochial schools do not have to be "a model of desegregation along class and racial lines?" They just have to provide an education. It's Linda Mann's and your responsibility to provide social consciences for your OWN children. Pay your "own" money and your "own" time to give it to "Your own" children. Jim Graham, Ventura Village - and on the rocky road from progressive liberal to progressive realist _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
