On January 7th California signed on to legislation that is supposed to give parents power to alter schools they think are not doing their job.
If parents are unhappy about their child’s education and 50% of them sign a petition stating this the school board must make significant changes to how the school is run. These changes can include closing the school, replacing the Principal or changing the way the school is funded.
This worries me.
I am all in favor of more ‘parent power’ in a child’s education, but with power comes responsibility.
Have parents been excluded from their child’s school? Have they been unable to see what is taking place in the classrooms? Or have they not taken the time, or made the effort, to find out what the problems are and how they can be fixed?
Parents and teachers need to work together to help children learn. If parents and teachers work against each other children’s education suffers.
How have schools been allowed to get into the situation where parents are so unhappy with their child’s education that they feel they have to force changes on the school, changes which may, or may not, be effective?
What have parents been doing as the school gradually becomes non-functional? What have teachers been doing to enlist the support of parents? I believe that all parents and teachers want the best for the children in their care. If parents and teachers want the same things why don’t they get together to make them happen.
Parent power is a good thing. Why have parents taken so long to take their power? And fulfill their responsibilities?
Could it be that parents and teachers find it difficult to communicate with each other? That teachers struggling to do well in a classroom do not know how to enlist the help of parents and that parents, afraid of the supposed power of teachers, never let teachers know their feelings?
Are there any answers out there?
