WomenCo.

DISCLAIMER:  If you are in the education system and this does not accurately reflect your committment, engage in this discussion and share your view point.  

My son started in a private progressive school at age 3 1/2.  He attended this school 2 1/2 hours a day for 3 days a week.  As each year passed until he was 5 the time he attended was gradually increased.  He learned to read, write and by age 5.  At age 6 he was placed in the first grade in public school.  He was bright, willing and engaged in his own education.  We lived in New Hampshire then.  We moved to Florida in 1999.  The public shool system here takes no accountabiliy.  He has struggled with teachers that tell him if he doesn't know a word to "skip it" and he'll figure it out later or when he asked to have the word pronounced for him, she refused.  He has been bullied, almost unmercifully and this continued until he went into high school.  My son will graduate in June 2009.  They successfully beat out of him any desire to attend college with their lack-luster approach to education.  The administrators backed the counselors, even when they lie.  My son has no respect for the education system at large and with good reason.

There is a larger issue at stake here.  It is not just about vouchers and home shooling your child(ren).  It is about making the education system accountable for it's actions, or inactions, from the ground level teacher to the top of the Board of Education.  It is about our tax payer dollars being spent on people who are less than excited about their job and the majority complain about their salaries.  This is not a substantive enough reason.  I have observed and been a first hand witness to the adults in public schools speaking down to the students, not matter what the age.   Our children are not second class citizens.  They are people. 

I COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY AGREE WITH BOTH OF YOU, Donna and Lorraine!!!!

Donna, I am APPALLED at the contempt of this teacher with your child! I could feel my blood pressure rise and started to get extremely hot as I read each word!

While I do believe there are more good teachers than bad ones, when the bad ones mess up like that, then it messes up the entire education system within the school, because failure to go that extra step means that next year's teacher is going to have to deal with it. Then the next, and those "nexts" wind up moving into the next school a child attends whether in the same town or a different state.

I do believe the public education system needs an overhaul. And you are right when you say it's not just about vouchers and homeschooling a child. Those are the products utilized because of a broken public education system. It is not right. And it is not fair to the children OR to US as adults (or taxpayers) because our future are these children. They will carry on when we no longer can or die. They should not have to settle for mediocre or failure.

And Lorraine you are correct in your assessment of where we must turn to attempt to fix the public education system around. Washington, D.C. as well as our local and state education systems. I'm of the opinion that the federal government should not even be involved in the first place. While it is true that the future of our country is in the hands of our children, I believe that it would be handled more effectively (if done right) on a more local level. Wishful thinking I know, and don't misunderstand me, I think there should be consequences for a state or local government in this idea of mine if the local and state government is not doing its job to make sure the schools are doing theirs. I just think when the Federal Government gets into it, a lot of time it simply muddies everything.

I do have a thread on this group about school standards by state. I know it is the responsibility of the public school system to make sure the children know what they should know by grade level. But given our current system, I think it's only smart that parents keep a link on their pc for those standards and look at them often, paying attention to whether or not their child is meeting that criteria. And if a parent knows what those standards are, it's not too difficult to just sit down and talk to their child, sort of "quizzing" them by talking everyday language and assess the child first hand. If your child is not up to the standards, find out why. Call other parents in your child's class to see if they're experiencing the same problems. Pay attention to their grades. Talk to their teacher and assess him/her as well by the answers they provide. If you suspect a problem with a teacher not doing his/her job, go to the principal. If the principal won't listen, go to your local BOE. If that doesn't work, go to your state BOE. And if that doesn't work, it's time to bring in the big guns. Legislators! Local, state and Federal! Pound them with letters and phone calls from yourself and other parents and teachers if the case should arise.

Actually this happened to me when my daughter was in the fourth grade. I listened to her teacher, completely believing my daughter's mediocre grades were because she was being too social, because she was and IS a social person. Then one day I walked into the school after parking to pick her up - carpool. Her class was down this long hall as I walked in, and as soon as I got through the door, I heard her teacher YELLING. When I went down the hall, the class door was shut, so she was yelling very loudly at the class. How the office didn't hear it and do anything about it, I'll never understand. But I did!!

I threw open the door and looked her dead in the eye, and all I said was "Felicia get your stuff." She did and we walked out of the classroom together and this teacher slammed the door as hard as she could as we walked down the hall. We went into the office demanding to speak to the principal, who conveniently was gone for the day. The next morning, we went back to the school, and I went into the office. The pricipal was not there that day either. So I flat out yelled in the office that my daughter would NOT be attending school until the problem had been rectified and my daughter moved to another classroom.

The next morning my husband went with us. This principal HID in his office, and the assistant principal told us we'd have to talk to her, and the only office available was the principal's office. She opened the door and turned on the light and there sat the principal with his head on his desk. He immediately got up and headed toward the door without saying a word. I jumped in front of him and told him to sit his *ss (sorry) down.

After telling about all the problems, they moved my daughter to another classroom where she began to EXCEL!!! But they did nothing to this teacher, so I went over their heads to the BOE with a 25 page single typed "journal" of everything that had happened that year. The lady told me she would read it and get back to me. I sat down in her office and said NO! YOU WILL READ IT NOW! And I sat there as she read the entire thing.  There was only one month of school left when this happened, so she was allowed to stay until the end of the year. She did not return the next year and the last I heard she was an administrative assistant to the local Wesleyan College President.

I'm not saying I did a big thing here, only that parents, alone or in groups, can impact change.

With the future of our children, ourselves, and our country at stake, it should not bother us one bit to step on some toes. I'm so sorry that happened to you and your child, Donna. I'm like a bulldog. I wouldn't let it go. Anger can be a bad thing, but it can also come in handy in perpetuating a positive outcome to an injustice. It's unfortunate that we cannot just go to the top in the first place to take care of these matters, but hey, that's our red-tape beaurocrcatic system. (chain of command so to speak)

Anyone else out there have a problem with their children's schools/teachers? Had problems that were corrected? Please share your experiences and thoughts!

For anyone seeking to go for or on the level now of legislation to overhaul the school system, you can easily Google your local and state legislators. If you are beyond that route, then visit senate.gov and house.gov to find your Federal Senators and Representatives.

Thanks Donna and Lorraine for participating. Posts like yours can help so many.

My children go to public school. I checked out other schools in my neighborhood and my school happens to have higher averages than some of the Catholic schools. Although its not perfect, I wouldn't change the school. There have been alot of cut backs but we get on board with book sales and candy and bake sales. It all goes for the needs of the school. I, for one, in my  neighborhood, am happy with my public school. That is grade school.

Now for junior high, which is 6 thru 8th grade, the school is horrendous. I pass one of them on my morning travels and I see the kids outside hanging out and so on. Its' not a place where I want my kids to go. But luckily they do have other types of schools, for instance, special teachings schools like, if your interested in the arts. Dancing, writing, drawing and things like that, they do have schools that start in the 6th grade and up. Also some other schools which are not private per se but you must take a test to be accepted. Thats the type of school I am looking into for my kids. My daughter is in 3rd grade, 2 years is not to long of a time. I'm doing my research now.l

Yes, Marie, thank you. Some of them are called magnet schools. But there is another type which at this late hour, I cant recall. lol

brandylynn1975 says ...

My children are in elelmentary school right now, which over all is a wonderful school.  Yet there is one teacher there who was my daughters kindergarten teacher.  She is horrendous.  The example that enraged me the most, concerning my child is she looked at my daughters coloring one day and told her that "Oh well, not everyone was an artist".  Well that is exactly what my child was and is to this day.  She was coloring a king and instead of coloring his robe one color, whe was coloring jewels all over it!  I was enraged, and it really affected her for a long time.  She started doubting herself when she had been our creative bee from the time she could hold a crayon.   

As my children move on to middle school, I am petrified.  I am a single, (and currently unemployed) mom and I cannot afford the shcools around here that I long for my children to attend.

 

Brandy: Thank you very much for your post. You have a good head on your shoulders to be thinking ahead about your children's education. That is why I think it is so important for parents to be aware of standards for our children. If we are aware and actually actively pursue what is going on with our children's education, it would most definitely help with education reform.

I, too, was terrified when my daughter started jr. high school and then high school. We were very stern with her doing her best to get good grades so that she could be in the gifted programs within the public school system. And the students  took ALL of their classes together. And being in the advanced classes, the teachers were VERY effective and with all of the gifted children in the classes it was a positive learning experience for her.

Again, thank you for your post.

Big hugs!!

Please forgive me if this message seems to be rambling. I've been up all night wrapping Christmas gifts while my son is asleep.

Big hugs!!!!

Brandy: My daughter did that a lot as well. She would try something once, and if she didn't get the correct answer, she'd throw up her hands. I thought it would drive me out of my mind at times. It takes a lot of patience, yet it also takes being firm by continuing to work with them. My daughter used to try to talk over me, yelling she could not do it because she wasn't smart enough, and I usually just sat there and listened to her and once she saw I was not reacting, she'd quiet down and then in a calm voice I would simply tell her that she could do it and that she was smart enough. It took many "pity parties" as you called it, but finally she started to come around and began to dust herself off and try things again even if I was not right by her side telling her to do it.