Bob Alberti wrote: > My experience of the educational system is that the more that the parents > are aware of and involved in their children's educations, the better those > children do. Having many friends, acquaintances and neighbors who are > teachers in both Minneapolis and St. Paul public and private schools, there > seem to be two challenges: > > 1) apathetic, self-involved parents who see school as merely a form of free > day care; and > 2) apathetic, self-involved governance -- from the legislature down through > the principals -- whose priorities are not the education of the youth, but > the perpetuation of bureaucracy, careerism, and petty politics. > > The teachers that I am acquainted with have never given up on their > students. Instead, they face students whose parents have never cared in a > system that has never cared: against such apathy sometimes the best that the > teachers can do is cope.
What if there were methods that these teachers and the schools could use that would alleviate the lack of parent involvement? Would it still be the "parents"? Teachers should own up to fact that they are members of a union that supports apathetic self-involved governance whose priorities are not the education of the youth, but the perpetuation of bureaucracy, careerism, and petty politics in order to promote its own interests. Is it still the "parents"? Why is it unreasonable to assume that I should be able to enroll my child in school and expect them to be educated? >From my perspective, this "it's the parents" rationalization is how middle-class parents in Minneapolis justify the inequality of outcomes in the public schools. "Things are fine the way they are now because nothing can be done to over come the lack of involvement in THOSE families." Michael Atherton Prospect Park _______________________________________ 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
