Thursday, October 25, 2007

Your Predictions?

Homeschooling parents obviously are not enamored with the public and private school systems. But if you look around, there are lots of blogs written by teachers and parents who are also not happy with what public schools, especially, are providing. Private schools do have to face some competition, and so I think there is a bit more catering to "the customer," which ultimately, I believe is the parents of the children being educated. But even in public schools in wealthy suburban neighborhoods, parents are not always pleased with the curriculum chosen, the way the school communicates (or doesn't) with them about what happens within their walls, and a myriad of other things.

But will this dissatisfaction with public schools ultimately lead to anything? Some parents who can't or don't want to homeschool are fighting the system by expressing their concerns to principals, superintendents and school boards. In the meantime, well-off and well-educated parents can afford to plug the gaps in their children's education with afterschooling or tutors. But these parents eventually leave the system. School boards can be voted out if enough parents are dissatisfied, but principals and superintendents can always hope to ride out the malcontents until their children move on.

So what will happen to schools in this country? Will public schools eventually get left to only those children whose parents are not educated enough to help them, or who are too busy to work for better solutions, or too poor to provide alternatives? Will parents who are already fighting from within, and homeschoolers who vote, manage to get some sort of competitive program, with vouchers or something similar, created, or will homeschoolers continue to be on the outside, and parents in the school system just give up once their own offspring are through?

You see, I'm seeing a real growth of unhappiness with the way education works in this country. And the internet enables us to link up with like-minded parents not only in our area, but all over the globe. I see real potential for change, but wonder how long it might take to reorganize such a large system so entrenched in many of our childhoods. Perhaps it will take the current generation of homeschooled, afterschooled and tutored children to grow up and make things different. What do you think?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Do you have any addys for the blogs of teachers or administrators or parents that are unhappy? It would be really interesting to read them. I'm fascinated with what really goes on in the schools. I think that the general way America looks at parenting, and therefore the issue of education, is different from the way the majority of other cultures looks at it. Interesting topic. I'd love to sit down and talk about it sometime.

Barb the Evil Genius said...

Well, there's kitchen table math. One of the main contributors to the site is a college professor (I believe) married to another college professor who is tutoring her son in math because the program offered by the wealthy NY state suburb they live in is terrible. Some of the content on that site may be a little gross right now due to frank discussion on some pamphlets featuring homosexual intercourse handed out at a health fair. There are lots of links at that site, some good, some not, and several contributors.

Here's an article by a teacher, granted, a Teach for America teacher, about how bad the Everyday Math program he had to teach was.

This parent has lots of pithy things to say about the quality of education his kids are receiving.

Illinois Loop is a whole group of parents who are trying to improve their schools and their children's educations.

I think these are good places to start. :)

Elephantschild said...

Anytime I get discouraged being a homeschooling mom, I head over to teacherlingo and read a few teacher blogs. Then I feel better.

And BTEG, I think it would take a new generation of students, who themselves were "alternatively educated" to change our education system. But I'm not holding my breath, if you'll forgive me for being quite so pessimistic.

The problem is, as John Taylor Gatto would tell us, that education in this country has become a huge bureaucracy whose goal is not the the education of our children, but perpetuation of its own existence.