To Parents

Could these words have been clearer?
From a Nation at Risk to Parents,
“You have the right to demand for your children the best our schools and colleges can provide. Your vigilance and your refusal to be satisfied with less than the best are the imperative first step. But your right to a proper education for your children carries a double responsibility. As surely as you are your child’s first and most influential teacher, your child’s ideas about education and its significance begin with you. You must be a living example of what you expect your children to honor and to emulate. Moreover, you bear a responsibility to participate actively in your child’s education.” (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983, p35)

Yes, the message could be clearer.

YOU are your child’s first and most influential teacher.
YOU are a living example for your child; stress the importance of education.
YOUR vigilance is imperative to our schools being the best.
YOUR responsibility is to participate actively.

To the Public: What door can you open?

To the Public: What door can you open?

Because I was given the opportunity to write for The Federalist Papers Project yesterday, I tried to make the message clearer, today.

Maybe opportunity does open the door to improvement. Please think about (and act upon) what doors of opportunity we can leave open for the next generation.

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7 thoughts on “To Parents

  1. You make some very good points. I would like to see this series published not only in the Idaho Statesman but also in many of the smaller papers in the state. I live in McCall now but am planning to move to the Lewiston area. When we first moved to McCall from Twin Falls I thought the schools up here were better but with the implementation of the Common Core Standard BS I am considering home school for my kids with a curriculum that I set. I have little faith left in our public education system and even less left in our federal government. Keep up the good work!

  2. Thank you for your comments, Erin. As I work to clean up my website and review my own writing, I will keep your suggestion about a potential series in mind. Newspapers are tough nuts to crack. More often than not you have to be a “somebody” to get your writing posted – either a political figure or a director of some organization. I don’t know about faith in government but I do have faith in people…and we should be directing our government. I have hopes.

  3. Since Common Core takes away all local and state control, and collects data on parents and teachers, are you gearing up to help fight it? How?
    Some of us in CA are speaking before school boards, but we sure do need a bigger impact.
    a former teacher who has already seen science and soc. studies left behind in the race to better scores in reading and math!

    • Jennifer,

      In the future, I would like to use your words “the race to better test scores.”

      “How to fight” is a great question. I can tell you from trying to fight the standards movement since the 90’s what does not work.

      So on this page https://thecrucialvoice.com/tools-for-change I would recommend scrolling down to the “advocacy” section and start with the Mom’s Congress advise. I don’t like the political stance of this group but they did good work. I summarize and should have provided a link to their full advice.

      We must organize locally and converge nationally.

      Me? Gearing up to fight? Yes, but my fight is bigger than Common Core alone. I’m going – as I have told one group I worked with in the past – for the whole enchilada. I feel that if we don’t stop the fight at the national level, you at the state and local levels will fight for what others did before you “ad infinitum.” I don’t want to play this game https://thecrucialvoice.com/2013/02/21/policy-ping-pong/

      For other sources of information on forming groups with the best chance of staying together for the long fight, please don’t hesitate to contact me personally. I have other “stuff” that I have not managed to get on my site.

      Hope this helps.

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