I went on to get a PhD in Biological Chemistry, and I have my own business that involves the law and science.

Some of us figured it out early (my sister). Some of us figured it out late (me). Some of us never figured it out (my brother).

During the course of my K-12 education a few folks tried to help. Early on, I wasn’t able to respond to their offers; later on, I wasn’t interested.

I guess I’m saying that if a kid doesn’t have support at home and isn’t interested, then you may be trying to make a horse drink. Or something like that.

How does my child learn best?
What accommodations does he need?
Where can I get him the help he requires?
What is the best way to get information from him about what he’s mastered?
What level is he? Where could he be with X amount of work?

Keep asking. It’s an educator’s dream to hear all that.

In-cog-neat-oh! – I hate to say it, but I feel your pain. I deal with those same things except I’ve not had a gun in my face. My reply is always the same to your wonderings: we’re not leaving children behind. They’re coming to us that way?

So how can we help the greater community at large then? Because we have the resources. This can be fixed. Are we all willing to do it?

I’ve been teaching for…….. oh, three weeks and working on my fourth. In my class already, there have been at least 8 suspensions. I’ve also had a gun pointed at me… and… God knows what else. Suspensions should actually be mroe like, 50 if we were in any other school, than one “up north”.

The community’s problems are immersed within the children… I’m seeing behaviours no child should have… the effects of drugs and alcohol both in the environment and in utero… we’re constantly being “blamed” for these children not “succeeding”…. when the problem is really top down and not down up. Meaning… the community is so broken, that the they feel the only way to fix it is through the kids… but these are kids, dealing with adult problems. They can’t and aren’t equipped to do it.

I’m thinking of writing a book, called The Perfect Storm… when all of the elements for a severely dysfunctional classroom are all put into one class, all at once… ugh.

I’m thinking parents need to get more involved with their kids’ education. So here’s my question: Dawson is 4 years old and I’ve enrolled him in 4K next year. What kinds of things can I do to help him succeed in school now and throughout the rest of his school years? How can I be of benefit to his teachers?

Maybe I’m naive, and perhaps I should know the answer, but I don’t. And too often I hear parents blaming teachers for things and it seems very unfair.

That’ll never stop me from doing the work.

Y’all remember all those wishes for me to be the AP at your kids’ schools when I lose my job.

Which, I’m not going to do.

So don’t read anything into that.

It was just a phrase.

Ok. STOP. I must STOP myself from commenting here because really I am just trying to be funny.

I’m leaving now…

I’ve had my share of issues and successes with the local school district, but after what I did to the poor administrators of MY high school back in the daze? I’m much more understanding with those shaping my children today.

I’m thankful that your struggles are such that they are. By which I mean that in Oregon, many teachers and staff have an “agenda”…be it environmentalism, gay rights, religious right or sex education versus abstinence. It’s a big to-do in this state, and we would all do much better to have your mindset.

Lots of hugs,

TSM

As an educator, I agree with so much of what you have said. I have always worked in impoverished schools where test scores are the most important things. As a teacher, I have always felt that test scores were the least important and I never focussed on them in class and my students always seemed to do well when it came test time, because I hadn’t put any pressure on them.

There are so many issues with our public educational system. With each new policy we end up moving further away from giving our students–or allowing our students to get the type of education they really need in order to be life long learners in whatever field they choose.

I am a fan of tracking–not school imposed tracking but student imposed tracking. Student’s know whether they are going on to college or not, etc. We took the choice away from schools but we didn’t give that choice to students. Only 20% of all jobs require a college degree yet we want all of our students to get one. Are we just setting them up for future failure?

I could go on and on–but I won’t monopolize your comments. This post was great and I agree that academics really is only a small fraction of the schooling our kids need.

I’m glad you’re looking at the picture as a whole, and that you’re possibly high enough in the system to implement some kind of change. Or am I way off base there?